In January 2023, The Jordan Legacy launched a new strategy designed to raise the bar in terms of collective ambition in suicide prevention and to plot a course of collective practical action that can realise that ambition. Shared learning and collaboration are at the heart of this strategy because we know we can’t do this alone but together we can achieve a transformation in suicide prevention.

Our mission is to move the UK towards a Zero Suicide Society, which we defined at the start of 2023 as a society that is willing and able to do all it can to prevent all preventable suicides.

Research suggests that most suicides are preventable so we must surely be willing to do all we can to prevent all those that are preventable.

Our Strategy

The Jordan Legacy’s long-term, collaborative strategy is being rolled-out as an ‘Action-Research Project’ during 2023-2024 and has 5 components or phases (it’s a fluid design not linear!):

1 – Identifying those who share the same vision, values and ambition

We first try to identify those who believe that most suicides are preventable and that we can significantly reduce the number of suicides in the UK. We also try to identify key shared values, which include the importance of humility and collaboration.

2 – Interviews, conversations, analysis and report publication

We continue to conduct one-to-one, qualitative interviews with stakeholders identified. During each interview, we are asking a number of questions, which, when narrowed down, should answer the key questions; ‘How can we significantly reduce the number of suicides?’ and ‘How far can we go?’. As we progress, we evolve our questions to also cover progress being made, barriers to progress, and how we can over come these barriers.

On July 11th 2023, Jordan’s 38th birthday, we published our first interim report, ‘Moving Towards a Zero Suicide Society’. You can read this report on this page on our website.

3 – Action centred discussion forums

The Jordan Legacy will continue to organise a series of discussion-based group forums (August event information here) to share the emerging research project findings and further investigate what can be done to significantly reduce the number of annual suicides in the UK. All aspects of the research will be reviewed and challenged.

4 – Collaborative action plan launch events

As we move into the Autumn of 2023, The Jordan Legacy will launch a series of physical and online events, where we will invite those people we interviewed, and those they recommend should attend, to discuss how the findings from the research project can best be implemented as a collaborative action plan.

5 – Implementation and continuous action learning

A plan will be created to implement the agreed recommendations and collaborative approach. The plan will highlight what is working and will work in reducing the numbers of suicides. This will be a dynamic action learning process which will continue relentlessly until we achieve our vision and ambition.

To read a more in depth explanation about The Jordan Legacy’s 2023-24 moving toward a Zero Suicide Society action-research project, please see this article on our website. 

Other activities we undertake to support our suicide prevention strategy:

• Our online educational panel events to discuss and share practical solutions to prevent suicides
• Delivering speaking engagements, talks  and working on joint community projects to encourage schools, workplaces and community centres to introduce practical suicide prevention activities and policies
• Forging partnerships with Police forces, professional firms and other charitable projects to consult and support their wellbeing and suicide prevention strategies
• Our annual Hope for Life (UK) Conference and awards event in Harrogate, North Yorkshire – to inspire and bring hope to a physical audience of 150 attendees and a wider online audience
• Our website and social media and online platforms which provide Help and Support resources and keep our followers informed about our progress toward our mission
• Planned development of a national database of those working in mental health and suicide related services to encourage collaboration between third sector and professional services
• Our fortnightly online radio show, Jordan’s Space, with lived experience stories, bringing hope and inspiration to a global audience

At The Jordan Legacy, we recognise that:

• We must guard against suggesting that all suicides are preventable or that a ‘zero suicide society’ is easy to achieve
• Despite the best efforts of loved ones and all those involved in mental health care and suicide prevention, some people will end their own lives
• Initiatives to ‘move toward zero’ must be collaborative and supportive, not just empty targets.
• We must avoid low ambition though – most national and regional suicide prevention strategies set at no greater than ‘10% reduction in 5 years’, have not been met.
• Many at a national level, feel that significantly reducing suicides seems too hard – there is a lack of belief and ‘moving towards zero’ sounds like a fantasy.
• Narratives like ‘it’s good that the number hasn’t risen’ is not something we can accept any longer.
• Research suggests that most suicides are preventable – surely we should be preventing most suicides?

The solution

If significantly reducing the annual number of suicides in the UK, well below 6000, sounds impossible then it’s time to tackle suicide prevention at the micro level as well as at the macro level.

If we asked an individual hospital, school, university, workplace or community setting ‘What should your target be for suicide deaths in the next 12 months?’, would they respond by saying 10%, 25% 50% or ‘it has to be zero’?

At The Jordan Legacy, we believe we need to work more at the micro level, in collaboration with others, to have a collective macro impact on reducing suicides and ‘moving toward zero’, although we continue to try to influence government and national approaches.

A Suicide Prevention Act – please sign this petition

Here’s are two practical actions you can take to help reduce the number of suicides and get those numbers on a long-term downward trend ‘towards zero’:

Please sign the petition here.

Then ask everyone you know (who also wants to see the suicide numbers falling) to sign the petition by sharing this link: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/640961

We are asking the UK government to: ‘Introduce a Suicide Prevention Act to seek to minimise suicides’