Volunteers with experience of suicide create podcast series to support staff working with people in crisis

Volunteers on a suicide prevention project have used their own experiences to create a podcast series with the aim of supporting staff who work with people in crisis. 

The series, called 'Surviving Crisis: Learning from Lived Experience', consists of five episodes, each 20-30 minutes long and covering different themes. 

All of the volunteers involved have personal connections to suicidal crisis - either from being in that position themselves or supporting someone else - and are part of the Suicide Prevention Coproduction Project - funded by West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnerhip's Suicide Prevention Programme and facilitated by Leeds Mind.

The episodes have been developed using insight from frontline health and care staff, who were asked in advance to share their thoughts and opinions on what they would like to hear discussed through the series. 

The volunteers said they hope the podcasts will provide helpful first-person accounts to staff and lead to positive changes for people experiencing mental health crisis in the future. 

One of the volunteers, Alyson, said she hopes the podcasts will offer staff "different perspectives", adding: "There is nothing better than learning from someone with lived experience to help inform practice and the way forward."

Another volunteer, James, said: "The more we can do to close the gap and make a more positive experience for everyone, the better the mental health of people accessing services will be in the long term."

Arlie Haslam, who co-ordinated the Coproduction Project at Leeds Mind, said: "Our volunteers' experiences will ring true for a lot of people out there and we hope that by sharing those stories, we can give a voice to the people of West Yorkshire, empower them and create change through this podcast series." 

Listen to the podcast episodes on the West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Website.