Ground-breaking work: Pictured, left to right, are Mary-Anne Crook, ASIST Trainer; Aly Anderson, CEO of CPSL Mind; Ruth Brown, Training Manager at CPSL Mind and Marion Willers, ASIST Trainer.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s ground-breaking STOP Suicide Campaign has received international recognition for making an ‘outstanding contribution to creating suicide-safer communities’.

The ‘Certificate of Recognition’ has been awarded by the Canada-based LivingWorks Suicide Prevention organisation – developers of the internationally-recognised Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) that is being offered as part of the STOP Suicide Campaign.

STOP Suicide is a community-based suicide prevention campaign led by Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and South Lincolnshire (CPSL) Mind alongside the Cambridge-based mental health charity Lifecraft. It is supported by local NHS and Public Health teams plus more than 50 other local organisations and 1200 individuals who have signed the STOP Suicide Pledge.

The campaign seeks to empower communities and individuals across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough to help prevent suicides by being alert to the warning signs, talking directly about suicide if they are worried about someone and helping those who are suicidal to stay safe.

The work has the support of a team of ‘Campaign Makers’ – passionate individuals in the community who work with the campaign to promote the core messages.

Since the campaign began in 2014 it has:

• Trained 500-plus individuals trained in suicide intervention skills (ASIST) or suicide awareness
• Distributed more than 20,000 STOP Suicide resources across our communities
• Had 3,000-plus conversations on the subject of suicide and 23,735 visits to the STOP Suicide website
• Gained 1,275 STOP Suicide Personal Pledges and 53 Organisational Pledges
• Won a national ‘Prevention’ award in 2015

Receiving the Certificate on behalf of the Campaign, Aly Anderson, CEO at CPSL Mind, said: “We feel honoured that the campaign has been acknowledged in this way  – but we are also very aware that there is so much more work to do if we are going to create a truly suicide-safe community where everyone at risk receives the help and support they need to stay safe.”

For more information about the campaign and the fully funded training places being offered, please see www.stopsuicidepledge.org