Building a Whole-Society Approach to Suicide Prevention: Learning from Japan
By Rhea Newman, 2024
Fellow’s Profile
Fellow’s Profile
How to develop a whole-society approach to suicide prevention
Developing new policies to involve the whole of society in the prevention of suicide
2020
London
I work as Policy and Advocacy Adviser at the Wellcome Trust, focusing on mental health. Prior to this I worked in the Policy and Campaigns Team at Mind.
My Fellowship focuses on understanding Japan's approach to suicide prevention. I am particularly looking to find out more about how Japan has involved departments across government, as well as other organisations such as schools, universities and employers, in reducing suicides.
I became interested in this because as well as my work in mental health, for many years I've been volunteering for a listening service focused on reducing the number of people who die by suicide. One common theme in both my volunteering and my work is that our mental health is affected by so many factors and effectively supporting mental health is about much more than health policies. There needs to be action across different government departments, particularly those with responsibility for economic and social policies, to try to effectively reduce suicides.
For this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day, the International Association for Suicide Prevention and World Health Organization are encouraging people all over the world to ‘start the conversation’ to help break down the stigma associated with suicide. The value of open conversations is what first got me involved in suicide prevention.
By Rhea Newman, 2024
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
For this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day, the International Association for Suicide Prevention and World Health Organization are encouraging people all over the world to ‘start the conversation’ to help break down the stigma associated with suicide. The value of open conversations is what first got me involved in suicide prevention.
By Rhea Newman, 2024
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.