Mike Bush's Posts - Mental Health in Higher Education Hub2024-03-28T08:37:33ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBushhttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/373105107?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://mhhehub.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=0n7balv3to6w9&xn_auth=noWhy public sector workers need a Samaritans-style helplinetag:mhhehub.ning.com,2015-06-22:6392542:BlogPost:229662015-06-22T18:16:03.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jun/22/why-we-need-a-samaritans-style-helpline-for-public-sector-workers">http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jun/22/why-we-need-a-samaritans-style-helpline-for-public-sector-workers</a></p>
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<p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jun/22/why-we-need-a-samaritans-style-helpline-for-public-sector-workers">http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2015/jun/22/why-we-need-a-samaritans-style-helpline-for-public-sector-workers</a></p>
<p> </p>The importance of supporting social workers’ own wellbeing should not be underestimatedtag:mhhehub.ning.com,2014-05-22:6392542:BlogPost:199942014-05-22T16:21:39.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<h1 class="title">The importance of supporting social workers’ own wellbeing should not be underestimated</h1>
<h2 class="subtitle">After Mike Bush experienced a mental breakdown while working as a social worker he looked to improve support for professionals' wellbeing</h2>
<div class="post-meta">May 16, 2014 <span class="small">in</span> <span class="categories"><a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/mental-health/" rel="category tag" title="View all posts in Mental Health">Mental…</a></span></div>
<h1 class="title">The importance of supporting social workers’ own wellbeing should not be underestimated</h1>
<h2 class="subtitle">After Mike Bush experienced a mental breakdown while working as a social worker he looked to improve support for professionals' wellbeing</h2>
<div class="post-meta">May 16, 2014 <span class="small">in</span> <span class="categories"><a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/mental-health/" title="View all posts in Mental Health" rel="category tag">Mental Health</a>, <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/your-say/" title="View all posts in Your Say" rel="category tag">Your Say</a></span></div>
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<p><strong>By Mike Bush</strong></p>
<p>Social work is a rewarding, but demanding profession. When I trained to enter it over 30 years ago there was nothing taught on our course about the importance of looking after ourselves.</p>
<p>Neglecting the needs of social workers – a workforce under the immense pressure to meet the needs of others day in day out – can come at a significant cost.</p>
<p>When I was working as a senior mental health social worker I had an acute mental breakdown and experienced suicidal depression. I know my experience is not unique among caring professionals. Ours is a sector where rates of sickness and absence, mental health problems and even suicide are elevated compared to the general population.</p>
<div id="promotionbox"><h2 class="promotionbox"><a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/community-care-live/#.U3Xg_PldXkV">Community Care Live 14</a></h2>
<p>Mike Bush will be running a session on workforce wellbeing at 1.15pm on day one of Community Care Live (20th May). <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/community-care-live/#.U3Xg_PldXkV">Full details here</a>.</p>
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<p>My experience gave me a whole new insight into the impact of acute mental distress and led to me working to improve support for social workers’ wellbeing.</p>
<p>I developed a teaching session, which I’ll be running at this year’s <a href="http://www.communitycare.co.uk/community-care-live/">Community Care Live conference</a>, on promoting health and wellbeing to teach social workers and social work students about strategies to protect and promote their own mental health and build emotional resilience.</p>
<p>These sessions aim to help people develop a mindful appreciation of our own mental and emotional health needs and why we need to integrate this into practice as social care and health workers.</p>
<p>In my sessions I help people to develop a mindful appreciation of our own mental and emotional health needs and why we need to integrate this into practice as social care and health workers. The aims are to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Examine what stress is, how it affects us and how we can understand and manage it.</li>
<li>Recognise the importance of looking after ourselves from our own perspective and that of service users, carers and employers.</li>
<li>Develop an understanding of a range of strategies to protect and promote our own wellbeing.</li>
<li>Understanding what we can do to help ourselves, including lifestyles, sleep, exercise, ‘eco therapy’, deep relaxation techniques, time management and prioritising our work</li>
<li>Knowing your rights as an employee, how to use your human resources department and the importance of union membership and professional associations.</li>
</ul>
<p>This is all so important because it impacts the quality of care staff can offer. If care giving professionals are stressed, fatigued, burnt out or distracted, they will not be in a position to listen, focus and attend fully to the needs of those that they care for.</p>
<p>The care we provide can also be undermined by factors that impact our wellbeing such as bureaucracy, poor or limited supervision and poor management. This is not about the training or competence of care giving professionals but about their energy levels, mental state and focus.</p>
<p>Ultimately, care giving will be greatly impacted by the quality of the organisational cultures that support staff. However dedicated and competent an individual professional may be, they cannot sustain a high quality level of care without being supported to do so.</p>
<p>The overall quality of support currently on offer in public services is hard to measure accurately. But high absence and sickness rates tell their own story and there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that points to a need to address a deep problem in the support cultures in which social workers and other health and care professionals are expected to work.</p>
<p>One thing we can do is support one another. To help promote mutual help and support between professionals I have set up a looking after ourselves forum as part of The College of Social Work. I am hoping that this will develop into a highly interactive hub where social workers will exchange resources and take strength and support from each other.</p>
<p><strong>Mike Bush is a mental health consultant and former social worker</strong></p>
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</div>Social workers must employ "everyday small actions of resistance" to revolt against austerity-based poor bashingtag:mhhehub.ning.com,2014-03-30:6392542:BlogPost:193842014-03-30T10:35:38.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<p>Austerity is being deliberately targeted at poorer people who depend on public services, a BASW Cymru World Social Work Day event heard.</p>
<p>University of Wolverhampton academic Graeme Simpson told social workers at Cardiff University that disabled people are being particularly hard hit by service closures and tougher eligibility criteria. He said that councils will be forced to make cuts of nearly 75% by 2018-19, with more than half affecting services and benefits.</p>
<p>Mr Simpson used…</p>
<p>Austerity is being deliberately targeted at poorer people who depend on public services, a BASW Cymru World Social Work Day event heard.</p>
<p>University of Wolverhampton academic Graeme Simpson told social workers at Cardiff University that disabled people are being particularly hard hit by service closures and tougher eligibility criteria. He said that councils will be forced to make cuts of nearly 75% by 2018-19, with more than half affecting services and benefits.</p>
<p>Mr Simpson used his presentation, <em>Social Work, Inequality & Austerity</em>, to highlight that the richest five families in the UK have more wealth than the poorest 20% of society. He said a determination to entrench inequality lay behind repeated ministerial demands for more ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ in public services – “part of a language which justifies cuts and attacks on public services”, he told the BASW Cymru World Social Work Day event, <em>Social and economic equality: social work solutions</em>.</p>
<p>Describing the situation in England, Simpson added: “There is an ideological assault upon the public sector. An ideological attack upon the basis of the existing welfare settlement and the poor. An ideological re-ordering of financial (and hence social) relations under the guise of ‘austerity’. And a concerted attempt at developing a discourse which will enable this to happen – both in terms of welfare recipients and service provision.”</p>
<p>Simpson said the ideologically-driven agenda extended to social worker training, exemplified by Westminster education secretary Michael Gove’s recent criticval assertion that “social work training involves idealistic students being told that the individuals with whom they will work have been disempowered by society”.</p>
<p>Looking for ways of countering the political agenda, Simpson turned to Europe where he said there has been a “long tradition of relationship based social work”, centred on social pedagogy, using “relationship based practice as a radical practice”.</p>
<p>He said it was possible to subvert the aims of policymakers and a managerialist system by ensuring, as far as possible, that service users get what they need through those direct relationships with social work professionals. He told the Cardiff audience: “Everyday small actions of resistance can be revolutionary.”<br/> </p>How to look after yourself: our professional resilience debatetag:mhhehub.ning.com,2014-03-28:6392542:BlogPost:193812014-03-28T03:13:51.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<div><a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589947405&blogid=24762">How to look after yourself: our professional resilience debate</a></div>
<p></p>
<p>On 6 March TCSW held its second debate on the new <a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/pressrelease.aspx?id=8589947278">Communities of Interest platform</a>, on the topic of professional resilience.</p>
<p>Given the stories that have been published over the last few weeks about stress and burn out in mental health and NHS…</p>
<div><a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589947405&blogid=24762">How to look after yourself: our professional resilience debate</a></div>
<p></p>
<p>On 6 March TCSW held its second debate on the new <a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/pressrelease.aspx?id=8589947278">Communities of Interest platform</a>, on the topic of professional resilience.</p>
<p>Given the stories that have been published over the last few weeks about stress and burn out in mental health and NHS social workers, the debate was another opportunity to share ideas and discuss further the types of work environment that can be conducive to ensuring that social workers' emotional and mental wellbeing is a priority.</p>
<p>Stress is part of life and certainly part of social work, but when severe and prolonged, this can be damaging in terms of mental and physical health and can lead to retention problems and the loss of good, conscientious and experienced staff.</p>
<p>There was a particular focus on NQSW and student social workers in a time where there is increasing demand and decreasing resources. Here are a few key quotes from the debate. To read the debate transcript in full, access the Communities of Interest via your <a href="https://www.tcsw.org.uk/memberlogin.aspx">membership dashboard.</a></p>
<p>“Students have protected caseloads and are rightly not exposed to the full stress of the role. NQSWs should be similarly protected, though I suspect they aren’t…This is the responsibility of educators (to prepare students for practice), managers (to support their staff) and practitioners (to be self-aware and self-manage stress where possible).</p>
<p>“Individuals need to learn both short term solutions – in the moment responses to stressful situations such as breathing, movement, mindfulness and visualisation, and longer term solutions around thinking styles, emotional management, reframing and reflective supervision.”</p>
<p>“One big question is how effective anyone can be if they are too busy – Munro pointed out that brain surgeons don’t rush operations because their waiting lists grow.”</p>
<p>“I don’t think that we celebrate our successes as a profession, which makes it more difficult when we are criticised. I think that knowing that you are doing a good job can alleviate stress.”</p>
<p>“Managers say they are open to being asked for help and having these conversations and yet still there can be a sense for practitioners that this is a ‘no go’ area and will reflect badly on them as individuals – anyone cracked how to work with this dynamic?”</p>
<p>Several key areas were considered and highlighted as characteristics that help to reduce workplace stress these included:</p>
<ul>
<li>Importance of employer’s standards which need to be comprehensively embedded in a positive organisation culture.</li>
<li>Benefits of mindfulness in stress reduction. The need to celebrate where teams have good support and to share what works with others that need improvement.</li>
<li>Importance of developing the online communities such as the TCSW Community of Interest group ‘Looking After Yourself’ - essential for promoting help, support and a ‘you are not alone’ stance.</li>
<li>Stress control as part of the team meeting agenda.</li>
</ul>
<p>Lydia Bennett, TCSW Professional Standards Officer and Mike Bush, panel member</p>
<div><a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589947405" target="_blank">http://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589947405</a></div>Missed the professional resilience debate?tag:mhhehub.ning.com,2013-12-22:6392542:BlogPost:189192013-12-22T21:40:31.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<div class="formatted_content"><p>Martin Seager, Jill Anderson and I were panel members in this recent debate held by the TCSW I think this was a mega important and extremely useful discussion, this came about because I recently instigated the setting up of a community of interest on the TCSW website on Looking After Ourselves. See also links to related work regarding research into stress in Mental Health Social Work with interesting and deeply concerning findings.</p>
<p>Please note intro…</p>
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<div class="formatted_content"><p>Martin Seager, Jill Anderson and I were panel members in this recent debate held by the TCSW I think this was a mega important and extremely useful discussion, this came about because I recently instigated the setting up of a community of interest on the TCSW website on Looking After Ourselves. See also links to related work regarding research into stress in Mental Health Social Work with interesting and deeply concerning findings.</p>
<p>Please note intro below from the College to this issue.</p>
<p></p>
<p>"Social work is an extremely rewarding and challenging profession, and there is no question that social workers have to deal with some very complex and stressful cases. So in addition to supporting the wellbeing and personal resilience of people who use services, how should social workers make sure that they are looking after themselves? This was the subject of our special festive debate, and an expert panel from across the health and social care sector joined us to discuss the issue and suggest ways in which both individual practitioners and employing organisations can ensure that the wellbeing of social workers is being considered and supported."</p>
<a href="https://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589946893" target="_blank">https://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589946893</a><br/><a href="https://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589946889" target="_blank">https://www.tcsw.org.uk/standard-2col-rhm-blog.aspx?id=8589946889</a><br/><a href="http://martinwebber.net/?p=1395" target="_blank">http://martinwebber.net/?p=1395</a><br/><br/>Mike Bush<br/>PS Happy Christmas and a peaceful new year</div>MRC Seminar: Looking After Ourselvestag:mhhehub.ning.com,2013-11-20:6392542:BlogPost:181722013-11-20T17:45:27.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<div class="thread-body" id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11282"><div class="body undoreset" id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11281"><div id="yiv9196448319"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11289"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11288"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11287">I would like to bring to your attention this important Seminar on Looking After Ourselves that I am jointly running with Dr Martin Webber of York University on the 12th of December to your attention see link below…</div>
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<div class="thread-body" id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11282"><div class="body undoreset" id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11281"><div id="yiv9196448319"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11289"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11288"><div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11287">I would like to bring to your attention this important Seminar on Looking After Ourselves that I am jointly running with Dr Martin Webber of York University on the 12th of December to your attention see link below for details</div>
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11298">Mike Bush</div>
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<div id="yui_3_13_0_1_1384967675086_11292"><a href="http://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/news-and-events/events/mrc/2013-14/mrc-12-dec-2013-looking-after-ourselves/">http://www.york.ac.uk/spsw/news-and-events/events/mrc/2013-14/mrc-12-dec-2013-looking-after-ourselves/</a></div>
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</div>Community of Interest Looking After Ourselvestag:mhhehub.ning.com,2013-11-08:6392542:BlogPost:181532013-11-08T10:59:33.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<p></p>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal">On the 18th of December from 12.30 to !.30 pm there will be an online discussion on the importance of "Looking After Ourselves" this will be on the Knowledge Hub which is part of the college of Social Work where I have instigated the establishment of a Community of Interest in Looking After Ourselves Please see links below for details you will need to join the Knowledge Hub which can be accessed via the College of Social Work website : …</div>
<p></p>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal">On the 18th of December from 12.30 to !.30 pm there will be an online discussion on the importance of "Looking After Ourselves" this will be on the Knowledge Hub which is part of the college of Social Work where I have instigated the establishment of a Community of Interest in Looking After Ourselves Please see links below for details you will need to join the Knowledge Hub which can be accessed via the College of Social Work website : <a href="http://www.tcsw.org.uk/Communities-of-interest/">http://www.tcsw.org.uk/Communities-of-interest/</a></div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal"></div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal">I am passionate about the importance of teaching strategies to protect and promote the mental health and wellbeing of social workers and others in caring professions.</div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal">I have been heavily involved in teaching sessions on Looking after Ourselves on social work courses at Universities in Yorkshire for the past 8 years and campaign nationally to get the teaching of emotional resilience incorporated into all social and health care courses nationally. I am currently in the early stages of developing with other national campaigners and interested parties a national conference on caring for those who do caring work so watch this space! I look forward to the development of this essential community of interest.</div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal"> </div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal"><span>Mike Bush </span></div>
<div class="yiv0900308475MsoNormal"> </div>
<p></p>
<p><a href="https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/thecollegeofsocialworkcommunitiesofinterest/forum/-/message_boards/message/11366666">https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/thecollegeofsocialworkcommunitiesofinterest/forum/-/message_boards/message/11366666</a></p>The Need for Strategies to Protect and Promote the Mental Health and Resilience of Social Workers.tag:mhhehub.ning.com,2011-08-09:6392542:BlogPost:25752011-08-09T16:11:25.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
<p> </p>
<p>Over thirty years ago I trained to do a very demanding, stressful job as a social worker. During my training there was nothing taught on the course relating to the importance of looking after ourselves. All the emphasis was on understanding and meeting the needs of service users and carers and of course although this is our raison d’être it is all to easy to forget about our own needs in the pressure to meet the needs of others and to do so can lead to drastic…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over thirty years ago I trained to do a very demanding, stressful job as a social worker. During my training there was nothing taught on the course relating to the importance of looking after ourselves. All the emphasis was on understanding and meeting the needs of service users and carers and of course although this is our raison d’être it is all to easy to forget about our own needs in the pressure to meet the needs of others and to do so can lead to drastic consequences.</p>
<p>This is not an academic reflection. Ten years ago I suffered a very severe mental breakdown due to an intolerable combination of extremely stressful work-related pressures, problems and a bullying boss. I felt like a dead man walking. The body machine was still working but there was no one at the controls anymore. It had been a very abrupt change- one moment I had been a Senior Mental Health Social Worker, a very busy “together” professional- the next I was designated a mental health service user, feeling utterly useless, extremely vulnerable, powerless and terrified.</p>
<p>This one-year of living hell launched me on a journey of light years in my mind in understanding and taught me so many things about severe mental distress. Amongst the lessons I learnt in the hardest possible way was the great importance of understanding and looking after my own mental health. This led me to develop a teaching session on strategies for promoting and protecting the mental health of social workers, which I have been teaching for the last five years at universities in the Yorkshire area. I am told by senior social work lecturers that my sessions have been highly evaluated, and valued by students. On asking students, some in the third year of their course if they have done anything on this subject before I have been astonished to find that they have not. I asked myself the question, why? I came to the conclusion that it’s a bit like the nose on your face it is so obvious it gets missed! </p>
<p>There are some really important fundamental lessons here for social workers around recognising your own humanity. We are not a separate superman or woman species to service users and carers. A social work degree is not a suite of armour. Cut us and we do in fact bleed! We are part of the human family and so we should be if we are to be fully human and understand and empathise with the needs and problems of other people. Together with this we need to recognise our own needs review these and have a care plan for ourselves. Even the toughest, most resilient people can have mental health and other problems that if not accepted and dealt with will lead to breaking point. Is prevention not better than cure?</p>
<p>Sadly I am not the first social worker to have had a breakdown and this also applies to others in different caring professions who also do difficult demanding stressful work. Convinced as to the great importance of the need for this, I have launched a national campaign to ensure that this is incorporated into the National Curriculum for social work courses. I think the case for it is indisputable as it is in best interests of employee, employer and service users and carers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mike Bush</p>
<p>Visiting Lecturer in Mental Health</p>
<p>Mental Health Consultant</p>
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<p> </p>The Impact of Suicide on Otherstag:mhhehub.ning.com,2011-08-09:6392542:BlogPost:30112011-08-09T15:54:19.000ZMike Bushhttp://mhhehub.ning.com/profile/MikeBush
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<p align="left"><b>The Need to Develop a Comprehensive National</b></p>
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<p><b>Suicide Bereavement/Prevention Policy</b></p>
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<p align="left">In Britain there is a suicide every 90 minutes and research suggests that it could be three times higher than this, as coroners often return verdicts of misadventure or open verdicts. For every…</p>
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<p align="left"><b>The Need to Develop a Comprehensive National</b></p>
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<p><b>Suicide Bereavement/Prevention Policy</b></p>
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<p align="left">In Britain there is a suicide every 90 minutes and research suggests that it could be three times higher than this, as coroners often return verdicts of misadventure or open verdicts. For every suicide 6 to 8 people are intimately affected, with many more having resultant bereavement problems. To lose someone you love through suicide is indescribably awful. It has been referred to as a personal holocaust. People torture themselves with a million questions of ‘Why?’ There is a whole kaleidoscope of emotions and feelings stirring around in a pit of despair. The sense of rejection can be crushing too. How can he have loved me to do what he did? Then there is the searing guilt - if only I’d done this or that-the replaying in the mind of countless permutations of possible scenarios of what may have been.</p>
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<p>Over 30 years ago, I was bereaved through my father’s suicide. At that time there was no support available to my sister and I, other than what we could offer each other. It was incredibly hard. My sister became depressed and I went with her to see a psychiatrist who just told her to take tablets. There was no referral to a counsellor to whom she could ventilate her feelings. I was only 19 at the time and knew nothing about mental health problems and distress. However, common sense and intuition told me she needed someone to talk to but this was not on offer. The tablets had all sorts of nasty side effects and my sister gave up taking them. As a consequence, she became more depressed and suffered with depression for many more years. It is a fact that people bereaved through suicide are more likely to have mental health problems and be at increased risk of suicide themselves.</p>
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<p> In general terms, men have a lot more difficulty than women discussing their emotional issues and problems. Male macho culture, and the concept that ‘big boys don’t cry’ is still very much around and accounts for the fact that many more men than women take their own lives. There is also a strong need to develop culturally sensitive suicide bereavement/prevention services to people from ethnic minorities and asylum seekers and refugees. Another important need is to develop a suicide bereavement service for children and young people this by its very nature will demand a skilful, sensitive and specialised response. Another area of concern are mental health workers who loses service users through suicide. These workers need help and support in the distress that they are experiencing and often with the guilt around their perceived professional failure towards the person they have lost. </p>
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<p>We need to build a coalition of interested organisations to develop a national suicide bereavement response this also needs to be incorporated into the National Suicide Prevention Strategy similar to that developed in Australia. Presently in Britain we have a number of voluntary groups trying to provide a good service but limited by inadequate funding. This leads to a postcode lottery with some provision in some places and little or nothing elsewhere. Suicide bereavement and prevention are opposite sides to the same coin if we do not provide good support to those bereaved through suicide we will have further suicides. There is a lot of good evidence that properly run Suicide Bereavement support groups save lives and help to reduce mental and emotional distress. I was involved in running the Leeds organisation of Survivors of Suicide for 15 years and I know that during that time the group really helped many people bereaved through suicide and I am sure it played an important role in preventing further suicides. The Samaritans have people bereaved through suicide as one of their priority groups. I gave a keynote speech at the National Samaritans Conference in September 2009 on the “Impact of Suicide on Others” and highlighted the need for a national response. This is clearly necessary as, every day, people are being bereaved through suicide. They are an overlooked, badly neglected group of people, whose acute needs and problems are very considerable and warrant a compassionate, well-organised and systematic response. If we live in a civilised society is this too much to ask? Common humanity demands that we take effective action but, in addition, a fully funded National Suicide Bereavement Strategy would, in fact, prove to be very cost-effective because of its effect of in relieving mental distress and helping to reduce further suicides’. We desperately need a national, well-funded, organised, compassionate response to people bereaved through suicide throughout the country as soon as possible. I am delighted to say that the Samaritans are very supportive of the need for this.</p>
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<p>Mike Bush</p>
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<p>Consultant in Mental Health</p>
<p>Retired Mental Health Social Worker</p>
<p>Member of the Leeds Suicide Prevention Strategy</p>
<p>Member of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Suicide Bereavement Working Party</p>
<p>Member of the All Party Group Suicide Prevention House of Commons</p>
<p>Member of the Samaritans National Advisory Group</p>
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