Politician describes suicides as a major national public health concern with increase in women's suicide labelled 'worrying'
BY: SHAUN WOOLLER WOMEN’S suicide rates are at their highest for a decade, alarming new figures reveal. But men are still three times more likely to kill themselves. An average of 17 people a day took their own life in the UK last year as the overall suicide rate rose slightly from 6,122 in […]
After a series of suicides within the acting community in 2013 and 2014, including those of Richard Gent and Paul Bhattacharjee, research into the difficulties industry professionals face in terms of mental health challenges was conducted.
by Matthew Hemley A recent survey found that 20% of performers have sought help for mental health issues. Photo: Andrey Guryanov/Shutterstock A series of suicides in the industry has prompted the launch of a new website aimed at supporting entertainment professionals facing mental health issues. ArtsMinds is a joint initiative between Equity, The […]
• NHS Review will call on David Cameron to invest £1 billion in mental health
• Poor NHS management blamed for mental health epidemic by a taskforce
• Experts concerned about psychological issues among many
By GLEN OWEN AND MICHAEL BLACKLEY FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY Hundreds of lives are being needlessly lost to suicide every year because of the Government’s failure to get a grip on a modern epidemic of mental health problems, a landmark report has found. An official NHS review will call on David Cameron to invest […]
Less than two years ago, 50-year-old David tried to take his own life in a council house in Salford. You can still see the scars when he stretches out his arm to light a roll-up cigarette.
“Everything just builds up after a while. I was walking around thinking where I was going to get money from, what [was] I going to do about the kids, how was I going to survive?” says David, as his two daughters sit quietly next to him on the sofa. “I’ve been through the bins and all sorts, trying to make ends meet. I’m not proud of it, but needs must at times.”
A college lecturer jumped 50ft to her death from the top of a building just hours after hospital staff put her severe suicidal depression down to ‘sleep deprivation’, an inquest has heard.
Rowena Golton, of Whalley Range, Manchester – who believed she had ‘lost in ego’ syndrome and would die a ‘lonely death’ – had urged her mother to take her to the euthanasia clinic Dignitas after a long-term romance had ended.
Despite being referred three times for urgent treatment due to concerns about her mental health, the vicar’s daughter was sent home by a psychiatric nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
The nurse thought 45-year-old Miss Golton – a former prop maker for children’s TV shows including Bill and Ben and Bob the Builder – was suffering from exhaustion and advised to return for further assessment the following day.
Instead she walked to the top of a mill in Stockport where she was involved in bible meetings and threw herself from the roof. Miss Golton was taken to hospital by ambulance but later died from multiple internal injuries.
It later emerged that waiting lists in Manchester for long-term psychotherapy treatment spanned from at least 12 weeks to nine months, which led to Miss Golton becoming more anxious due to the lack of support she deemed necessary.
“Welfare suicides don’t exist. Suicide is a mental health issue.” That line, by the former Labour official Luke Bozier, pretty much sums up the standard rightwing response to the website Calum’s List. According to its founders, the aim of Calum’s List is “to list the number of deaths where welfare reform has alleged to have had some culpability, and to make the best effort possible to work towards reducing this death toll.” Bozier’s Twitter comments were a gloss on blogposts by The Spectator’s Isabel Hardman and the Telegraph’s Brendan O’Neill.
