We believe strongly in the importance of ensuring that suicide prevention strategy and delivery is driven by lived experience, alongside academic research and best practice.
That’s why we support the National Suicide Prevention Alliance’s (NSPA) Lived Experience Network. The network strives to ensure that suicide prevention activity across the country is underpinned by the voices of people with lived experience.
The Lived Experience Network includes a large online panel that anyone with lived experience related to suicide can join, as well as smaller group of Lived Experience Influencers.
There are currently 34 Lived Experience Influencers in the network, all of whom have been through extensive training and are offered ongoing support. Influencers draw on their own experiences, and that of their peers, to inform suicide prevention practice, policy and strategy work.
In addition, the online Lived Experience Panel now has over 300 members. The panel has been providing insights to national suicide prevention work by completing surveys, including on experiences of support during Covid-19; experiences of ethnicity, support, suicidality and bereavement; and views on future priorities in suicide prevention.
We will be working with the network as part of our development of STORM® training. We encourage everyone working in suicide prevention to include the voices of people with lived experience in a meaningful way.
If you would like to explore how Lived Experience Influencers, or insights from the wider online panel could enrich your work, please do get in touch with the NSPA.