September 10th 2024 was World Suicide Prevention Day, and IP Inclusive and Jonathan’s Voice presented a webinar around the theme of Changing the Narrative. We were delighted to be joined by Dr Susie Bennett, a psychologist and research fellow at the Suicidal Behaviour Research Lab at the University of Glasgow. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were 6,069 deaths by suicide in 2023, an increase on the previous year, and men’s deaths outnumbered women’s by 3 to 1. In fact, every year since records began in 1861, more men than women have died by suicide.
Susie’s research has found that male suicide is linked to a wide spectrum of complicated and diverse behaviours, making it hard to identify risk factors. What they do all share is that they are experiencing a crisis of pain and are often ill equipped with tools to manage that pain. This is where Susie feels the narrative around suicide can change from being about mental health to instead a discussion around pain. Susie described everyone having a tank of pain, because to be human is to experience pain. There is a pipe at the top filling the tank with exposure to pain, and a drain at the bottom representing those tools we use to regulate pain. Most of us have ways to manage the level of pain in that tank, but if someone doesn’t have the tools to let the pain out of the bottom, the tank will fill to crisis point.
To read the full summary of Susie’s webinar which has kindly been written by Anne Burgato of IP Inclusive and first published on their website click A tank of psychological pain
Trigger Warning – contains discussion of suicide.
If you, or someone you know is struggling, please do make us of the resources below
- LawCare runs a free confidential helpline (0800 279 6888) and an online chat service. Those are available to anyone who works in the legal sector, including IP professionals and business support professionals, and their families.
- The “Need help?” page of the Jonathan’s Voice website signposts a range of useful resources, including their own mental wellbeing guides, as does the mental health and wellbeing page of the IP Inclusive website.
- The Samaritans operate a 24/7 helpline on 116 123, again free and confidential.
Susie will be speaking in person at another Jonathan’s Voice and IP Inclusive event, hosted by Keltie LLP in London on 21 November 2024. For more information and to book, please see IP Inclusive’ s event page for A Deep Dive into Men’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention.
