Overall impression

The @WeDocs tweetchat on preventing suicide in our organizations was fantastic! It started out as an action from the #StartTheConveration NHSChange Day pledge which was "I pledge to start a conversation about preventing suicide in my organisation" – and did we start a conversation! The chat was lead by Dr Alys Cole-King and supported by Philippa Rees. Given the sensitive subject matter we invited some experienced tweeters to join us to provide a compassionate ‘safety net’ to everyone in the chat. Both @CALL_247 and @121depression provided excellent chat and emotional support during and after the chat and our peer buddies @DrKateLovett & @BPDFFS were wonderful!

Despite a very busy chat and difficult subject it was wonderful to see how quickly participants got into their stride and shared really powerful stories and supported each other. For some professionals this would be the first experience of talking to people with lived experience who were now fully recovered and actually turning the tables and providing insights and support to help the professional. 

Facts and figures

There were 105 active tweeters and between us we sent out 903 tweets with a total reach of 2,392,697 in the allocated 1 hour of the official chat between 8-9pm. We really did #StartTheConversation as our ‘unofficial chat’ actually continued way beyond that and even into the next day! This was a large general chats about suicide prevention with a really diverse participant group – exactly what is needed to tackle suicide – everyone working together.

Themes

The overwhelming view was that the NHS and doctors and health professional do have a role in suicide prevention, many tweeters especially mentioning the vital role of primary care. We all felt that the stigma of suicide is still a major barrier to people seeking & providing support in the NHS and that we need to eradicate this. We understood where the stigma originates: fear, poor understanding, perceived and actual lack of time, confidence, practitioners ‘running on empty’. Many participants called for more and better training in awareness, skills and how to respond safely. 

We also discussed the need for better post-suicide intervention awareness and skills. We discussed how the perceived stigma can be even worse for a health professional needing emotional support and also for males. The overwhelming theme though, was one of the need for compassion and respect and this was evident thought the whole chat.

We thought some of the solutions lay in: more resources, more awareness, ‘clinician friendly patient assessment tools’, ‘supporting each other and not judging colleagues when things go wrong’, ‘just being open and approachable to colleagues and patients can help. ‘Someone to listen’. We all discussed the need to be kinder to ourselves and our colleagues and to keep talking. There was a recurrent theme of the need to share hope and that people could be supported in to finding a way through feeling suicidal.

Post chat

Many commented how it had been a very enjoyable chat, how the hour had ‘flown’ and how uplifted they felt following our conversation – not bad for a chat about suicide prevention. Some continued the conversation into the next day and are already planning a follow-up chat!

Sincere thanks again to everyone for their contribution and we should feel so encouraged that a small but vital step to #StartTheConversation has occurred. The full chat summary will be available soon.

By @AlysColeKing