Thursday 15 August 2013

Sharing stories and experiences to help with our suicide prevention research


Sharing stories and experiences to help with our suicide prevention research




I had never considered myself as a person with a learning disability, it’s just the way it has always been.  At 60 I still struggle to spell even short words, like how many "L's" are there in "really" gets me every day.

So education in the 60's was a painful process and quite damaging as it just highlighted all the things I couldn’t do.

I was pretty sure I was reasonably intelligent but just couldn’t fathom why things like spelling and reading eluded me and was so easy for my classmates.

The school did have a word for my struggles  "laziness"! being the most common. Yet to me it felt like climbing a mountain everyday.


I left school having failed completely when it came to exams. The fall out was that in my teens I discovered drugs. To cut a long story short I was unaware of why drugs were so attractive to me, I couldn't help myself and things escalated ... I was injecting for 5 years.
When finally I started to see what a mess I was in (some years after those around me had), I found myself sitting on a window ledge 3 floors up feeling desperately miserable, trapped and lonely as I watched the people next door (who I didn’t know so wasn’t invited) prepare for a party in their garden.

I am soooo lucky! there was a phone nearby and self preservation kicked in so I rang the Samaritans and we TALKED, but for many they may be beyond that point of self preservation, engulfed in a downward spiral. Its so hard to stand back and realise what’s happening to you enough to recognise the seriousness of these feelings and do something about it.

For a person with a learning disability it may be all the harder for them to make sense of these feelings and express themselves.

Although I knew nothing of dyslexia I did discover the visual and creative world was the place for me, it played to my strengths, scratching my creative itch in a positive way, so I was very lucky young man. 
A Happy Ending

With hindsight my call for help was also the moment when my life changed direction in a good way.

I've been a video director and photographer for some 35 years now. Which in a strange way brings me full circle as I am now about to help create suicide prevention tool for people with a learning disability.

This is where you come in, I need your help to better understand the people we want to help and how best to communicate to them in a language everyone and anyone involved understands.

There is a considerable amount of academic work and research in this area, which is not only very hard for me to assimilate as its so technical but also it doesn’t give me the insight into the "heads hearts and minds" of the carers, families, friends and support workers in the lives of those who have felt suicidal.


The suicide prevention tools we are working on are for people with a learning disability and the people in their lives. As a director I learn by talking to people, asking questions and getting their personal insights and reflections so I really get a feel for what's in their heads hearts and minds. That is the key to making these tools effective, real world input.

What I am looking for?  it's people’s first hand accounts and experiences around the topic of suicide, suicidal thoughts, changes in behaviour, triggers, warning signs, solutions, personal strategies etc. In fact anything you feel might help us better understand this challenging subject from a 360 degree perspective.
It could be in any form, a blog and email, an offer to chat or to answer questions. Anonymity and confidentiality is a given, people can always get a friend to send us something.
Grassroots is the Brighton based suicide prevention charity who have already won the funding for this important work and it’s them you should touch base with please if you have a story, experience or a reflection you would be happy for us to learn from.  
Chris Brown, a director at Grassroots is the person to contact, she is often out training and doing amazing things to grow the charity and get the message out  so usually best to email her at Grassroots
chris@prevent-suicide.org.uk 
Please say if you wish to be anonymous its not problem, the important thing is to send us your experiences, so it's part our research process and knowledge base as we develop the tools.

We are intending to create some surveys soon too so that the information gathered is structured as Chris tells me there are some gaps in this kind of research data. It may also become a very useful resource for anyone who is part of a persons life who has learning disabilities and has concerns around suicide.

A key part of our strategy is to help facilitate the all important conversation, so the tools will be very accessible for all, relying a lot a "See and Hear" approach not text as in Easy Read.
If you want to learn more about the visual language we will be using as part of the toolkit then have a read of my blog. http://tinyurl.com/b8twhhy
To learn more about the great work at Grassroots:




Grassroots Suicide Prevention is a registered charity number 1149873 and a company limited by guarantee 5687263.


If you want to contact me:
jon.bryant@btclick.com @Chicustard on Twitter.