How Do We Talk About Suicide? A Mental Health Arts Network gathering.

Art can be a powerful way of addressing the difficult subject of suicide, but how can it be done without sensationalising, stigmatising or triggering? This is a recording of a discussion event that took place on 23 February 2022, hosted by the Mental Health Foundation as part of its new Mental Health Art Network programme, supported by the Baring Foundation. Taking part in the discussion were: Mariem Omari, artistic director of Bijli Productions, whose show One Mississippi is a powerful piece of verbatim theatre based on interviews with men who have been driven to attempt suicide. One Mississippi is touring Scotland in May 2022 as part of SMHAF. Rory O’Connor, Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Glasgow and author of the book When It Is Darkest, which explores why people take their own lives. Bex Singleton, a film-maker whose short documentary I’ll Love You Till The End sensitively examines the experience of people bereaved when someone they love takes their own life. Michael Duke, a playwright and theatre director who is currently developing a new project about the difficulty of understanding, through notes left behind, the worlds experienced by people who have died by suicide. Hosted by Andrew Eaton-Lewis, arts programme officer for the Mental Health Foundation. The event image is taken from the poster for One Mississippi by Bijli Productions. If you have been bereaved or affected by suicide, you can contact Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide. Email [email protected] or call the helpline, open 9am to 9pm Monday to Sunday, on 0300 111 5065. Breathing Space is a free, confidential phone service, available to anyone in Scotland, providing listening, advice and information about mental health. You can speak to a Breathing Space advisor on 0800 83 85 87. Samaritans volunteers are there to listen. The phone line is free to call and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can speak to a trained Samaritans volunteer on 116 123.