An evaluation into the creation of a suicide memorial quilt is shining a spotlight on the impact, benefits, and important learning to be taken from the project.
Speak Their Name North East is a community-led venture, which has supported bereaved families to create a memorial quilt representing 77 lives lost to suicide. Telling the stories of these individuals, the quilt was made to raise awareness with the aim of preventing further deaths.
Described as a therapeutic way for the families to remember their loved ones, the quilt’s subsequent tour of the North East has brought its powerful message to the wider public – that learning from lived experience, combined with community action, has the power and momentum to influence behaviour change and prevent ill health.
In England there were over 5,000 deaths by suicide in 2022, a rate of 10.6 per 100,000 people – this hasn’t changed in 20 years. In 2022 in the North East and North Cumbria, there were 359 deaths by suicide – a higher rate than the national average (Samaritans 2024).
It can be easy to forget that behind these numbers is a life lost – a son, a mother, a colleague, a dear friend. Suicide is not discriminate, it can affect anyone, young or old, those receiving care or treatment and those not.
Whoever is lost will have an impact on the lives of those they leave behind and on society. It is estimated that for each life lost to suicide, 135 other people are affected (Samaritans 2024). Losing someone to suicide is tragic, and one of the most difficult and lonely experiences in life.
There is growing acknowledgement of the need to do more work on prevention and providing access to compassionate, timely support for those who have been bereaved by suicide. Adults who are bereaved by suicide are 65% more likely to attempt suicide than those bereaved by sudden natural causes, irrespective of whether the deceased is blood‐related or not (Pitman 2016). Suicide ‘postvention’ – which means supporting those who have been bereaved – is therefore an important suicide prevention strategy (Andriessen 2009).
In the North East and North Cumbria, we have set an ambitious goal to reduce the difference in the suicide rate in our region compared to the England average by 50%. This is part of delivering ‘better health and wellbeing for all’ – our integrated care strategy: https://northeastnorthcumbria.nhs.uk/media/ifgjdfjx/integrated-care-strategy-better-health-and-wellbeing.pdf
The Speak Their Name North East suicide memorial quilt project received funding from the North East North Cumbria learning and improvement community, supported by the Health Foundation.
When the learning and improvement community first came together in 2022, one of the identified priority areas was to shift the balance of care from treatment towards prevention. This can be achieved by giving resources to communities and citizens, enabling them to design and implement health improvement solutions – exactly as was done with this project.
The evaluation into the creation of the quilt has highlighted its significant impact…
From the perspective of the quilt makers:
From the perspective of those who have viewed the quilt:
Key learning points from this evaluation were:
Work continues to share the learning and consider the implications of this project. We encourage you to read the evaluation report in full below:
References
Andriessen et al. (2019) Effectiveness of interventions for people bereaved through suicide: a systematic review of controlled studies of grief, psychosocial and suicide-related outcomes BMC Psychiatry 19:49 p1-15.
Pitman, A. L., Osborn, D. P. J. , Rantell, K. , & King, M. B. (2016). Bereavement by suicide as a risk factor for suicide attempt: A cross‐sectional national UK‐wide study of 3432 young, bereaved adults. BMJ Open, 6
Samaritans (2024) The economic cost of suicide in the UK https://media.samaritans.org/documents/The_economic_cost_of_suicide_in_the_UK_-_web.pdf
