Priority 3: Impact

Our ambition

People experiencing suicidal distress are safer and better supported and the systems that affect their lives do more to prevent suicide.

Our challenge

Each day that suicide rates remain high is another day we lose someone whose death might have been prevented.

We must all act today to make suicide prevention a priority for everyone and increase our collective impact to reduce suicide rates.

How we will achieve this

How we will achieve this

• Samaritans will speak out clearly and boldly about suicide – especially when silence or stigma prevent progress. We won’t shy away from campaigning on the inequalities that increase people’s risk of suicide.
• By refreshing our approach to influencing we’ll be clear about the specific change we are calling for, prioritising a small number of areas where we can use our evidence, lived experience and influence to unlock meaningful change to start to reduce suicide rates across the UK nations and Ireland in the long term.
• Recognising that lasting change requires collective effort, we’ll work collaboratively with others to shape more effective national and local systems.
• We’ll build on the impact we’ve already made, for example in tackling suicide in the rail environment or influencing the media, to support suicide prevention work, and communicate and report on suicide responsibly.
• We’ll use the insight from our services, research and lived experience to contribute to wider societal change and challenge systems to address the underlying factors that increase suicide risk.
• We’ll deliver help-seeking behaviour campaigns to challenge stigma and encourage people to take action as well as increasing their awareness and trust in Samaritans.
• We’ll strengthen how we measure and understand the difference our work has on reducing suicide. This includes gathering reliable feedback from people who contact us, setting clear starting points and tracking outcomes so we can see where we are helping and where we need to change.