Please Sign Our Petition To Help Reduce Suicides (and Persuade Others To Sign It Too)

[paullai]

Tutors and peers of my son, Ben, said he was intelligent, helpful, fun to be with and above all kind and considerate. Ben had his whole life in front of him and had everything to live for. Ben went to his GP to seek help for his depression but did not receive any. Since his death, I have learned that thousands of young people have died needlessly from suicide; many because the best practice had not being followed. Were the deaths caused by a deadly virus, the failure of government and others to respond with more than sweet words would be a national scandal.

It is not as though best practice is unknown. Nor that it is simply a question of under-funding. There have been countless cases where best practice guidelines have simply not been observed. For example, the Royal College of General Practitioners and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommend that everyone with suicide ideation should be actively monitored (bit.ly/1VUKDI5). And yet this simply isn’t happening. Why are clinicians reluctant to follow best practice? How might they and others be further encouraged to do so?

The purpose of this petition is to focus on the one group of professionals able to explore whether best practice was followed in each case of suicide. HM Coroners have a duty to investigate whether death is avoidable but this is not currently mandatory. Were coroners to be required, in cases of suicide, to explore whether best practice guidelines were observed by clinicians, a substantial number of suicides might be avoided in the future.

You could help make this happen by signing the petition: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/131314

The above would just be a start to help prevent suicide. We hope to get 100,000 signatures to get the matter debated by parliament and would be grateful if you could forward this email to your local branches and also use your influence to get others to sign it too.

Sincerely yours with gratitude,
Paul

Paul Lai