On Tuesday 6th September, Office for National Statistics (ONS) published their annual Registered deaths in England + Wales from suicide.
New stats published by Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed 5583 people died by suicide in England and Wales in 2021.
The figure is an increase in the numbers registered in 2020 however this is broadly in line with pre-pandemic levels.
Responding to the newly published ONS Suicide Data, Chasing the Stigma CEO + Founder Jake Mills joined Mick Coyle on his podcast #MentalHealthMonday, said:
“It’s simply not good enough, once again, for us to be talking about the number of lives that have been unnecessarily lost. Once again, we have to be doing so much more because the evidence in front of us is that what we are doing as a society is simply not enough.
We sit here we talk about the number of suicide every year, and we look at the statistics that have come out today. In my honest opinion, as long as these numbers are plateauing, I think people are happy with that. I think when people are reading the report, people are thinking, that it’s not a statistically significant difference.
These are lives. These are lives that have been lost. These are families, these are people who’ve been left behind. These are people who have been struggling and suffering and they thought suicide was the only way out.
I think it’s incredibly crass of also anybody else to just think, as long as it’s around about the same numbers year on year, then that’s okay and people will accept that suicide is inevitable. Suicide is not inevitable. These numbers every year being around the same is not inevitable. And to just accept this data as it stands, which I generally believe people do, is immoral, in my opinion.
We have to do so much more and I feel like we should be as a society a lot angrier about this than we seem to be.”
If you’re mentally unwell, too many of us have no idea where to turn and what help is available. Chasing the Stigma wants you to know that the support is available and support is available now via our mental health app Hub of Hope where we have over 6000 services available whenever and wherever you are in the UK.
We know that the threshold in NHS services is so high that sometimes you can be waiting weeks, months or up to a year to be seen. Through Hub of Hope we’re trying to give people more choice through grassroots organisations, communities, community groups, and places where you can go see somebody and have a cup of tea, it can be the difference between life and death.
To anyone struggling with mental health, make the first step to talking to someone and being truthful about how you are feeling. We all deserve a chance and everyone deserves to be healthy. Like with our physical health, when we have limitations we ask for help and we should do the same for our mental health. Even if you can’t see it at that time, there is always a way through. Find support and give yourself a chance to get better.
Hub of Hope is Free via apple stores + google play