North Central London Suicide Prevention Programme

Please note this page will discuss mental ill health, self-harm and suicide.

In North Central London, an average of 93 people die by suicide every year; each of these is a life lost and a community devastated. To address this, public health teams in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington, along with the NHS, have come together to form the NCL Suicide Prevention Partnership. Our goal is to reduce the suicide rate locally through population-based suicide prevention measures as well as programmes targeted to those at highest risk. Backed by ICB funding, the programme partnership is seeking to meet our goals by delivering the following:

Suicide prevention training for professionals working within North Central London
Suicide awareness raising campaigns to improve public awareness of mental health resources
Suicide prevention community grant funding for local VCSE organisations
Support for high-risk children and young people to reduce risk of suicide
Support for individuals who present to emergency departments with suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours

North Central London Integrated Care System have partnered with Grassroots Suicide Prevention to remind North London residents that if they are thinking about suicide or worried about someone else, it’s ok to ask for help.

Stay Alive – a self-help suicide prevention resource

Stay Alive is an award-winning suicide prevention resource packed full of useful information and tools to help people stay safe in crisis. It is available as a free-to-download app or on a web browser. We encourage all staff to consider incorporating the app into your conversations with service users. You may wish to download the app and familiarise yourselves with its features, including:

LifeBox – a space to store life-affirming photos, images, videos, music, and files
Safety Plan – a plan to help recognise signs a suicidal crisis is beginning or escalating, and actions to stay safe
Wellness Plan – a plan for longer term recovery
Breathing exercises – a range of exercises to help relax in stressful situations
Reasons for living – a list of evidence-based reasons to stay alive, themed around the self, family and friends, and hope and belief

Alongside over 100 national services and helplines that can offer support, the app can also help with signposting to over 40 local services by clicking ‘Find Help Now’ and filtering for North London.

The app is available on both Android and iOS, or can be accessed at stayalive.app

Stay Alive Booklet – North Central London colleagues can order hardcopy versions of the Stay Alive app, tailored to support suicide prevention in NCL. It is available free of charge to local organisations, services and community groups working with residents in these boroughs. Each organisation can order a minimum of 25 copies (with larger orders welcome, subject to availability). Find out more and order booklets for your organisation.

North Central London Suicide Prevention Community

Suicide is often seen as a mental health issue, but only 1 in 4 people who take their life are in contact with mental health services before their death. However, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any opportunities for intervention; many people struggling with thoughts of suicide are facing other issues in their life that can lead to an increase in suicidal thoughts, including loneliness, domestic abuse, financial concerns and housing insecurity. Often, people will reach out for help for these issues, which creates an opportunity for compassionate professionals and volunteers to identify potential suicide risk and offer much-needed support.

That’s why we have created the North Central London Suicide Prevention Community. This will be a space for local organisations and services to connect with each other, share best practice and learn about how to best support their service users who may be struggling with thoughts of suicide. The community is open to any organisation or community group working in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and/or Islington. Members do not need to be working within the mental health sector, and we welcome anyone who is keen to learn about how they can be more suicide aware.

As part of the community, you will have access to:

Monthly newsletters which contain updates on local and national suicide prevention activity
Learning forums tailored to themes that members of the community would like to learn more about
Updates on future activities, such as training and funding opportunities

The best way to get involved is to sign up to the NCL Suicide Prevention Community mailing list or emailing ncl.suicideprevention@barnet.gov.uk for more information.

Training for Frontline Professionals in Local Authority and VCFSE Services

We are pleased to announce that we are partnering with Grassroots Suicide Prevention to deliver suicide prevention training to professionals working in frontline roles in North Central London.

Given that only 1 in 4 people are in contact with mental health services before their deaths, but many others are receiving support from a variety of other services, we have worked with Grassroots to tailor their standard training offers to best suit the needs of services supporting cohorts of people at an increased risk of suicide.

Training is available for professionals working in Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and/or Islington, in either

Local authority frontline services
Voluntary, Community, Faith and Social Enterprise organisations

There are two training offers available, with limited spaces on each, so please do book on to training ASAP:

Real Talk for Relationship, Loneliness and Bereavement Services – 19 November 2025
Real Talk for Physical Health Services – 9 December 2025
Real Talk (Open Session) – 11 February 2026

Caring Connections for Autism, LGBTQIA+ and racialised communities services – 27 Nov 2025
Caring Connections for Physical health, bereavement and loneliness services – 28 Jan 2026

Please note:

We kindly ask that no more than 3 people per service sign up to each training course, to ensure equity of access across North Central London. Please discuss internally within your service which members of staff would most benefit from this training.
Whilst each course has a specialist focus, most of the content is standard across each session – therefore please do not book onto multiple courses.
Both Real Talk and Caring Connections courses are suitable for any frontline professional working with people who may be at risk of suicide. Real Talk is a shorter course focusing on introducing people to suicide prevention, while Caring Connections is an intermediate course that goes into greater detail. Please consider which would be more appropriate for you to attend.

Training for Primary Care Staff

90% of people with mental health issues receive treatment solely within primary care, so this workforce are vital in keeping people safe from suicide.

As part of the NCL Suicide Prevention Programme, we are working with 4 Mental Health to deliver Suicide Awareness and Response for Primary Care training across North Central London. The training is designed to equip primary care staff with the knowledge and tools to navigate a conversation about suicidal thoughts within a ten-minute appointment. This is done by teaching colleagues how to use the Suicide Assessment Framework e-Tool (SAFETool)™. The training and use of SAFETool™ are fully compliant with recent NHS Staying Safe from Suicide Guidance.

Training will be delivered through two e-learning modules that can be completed in your own time and at your own pace, taking 3.5 hours total.

Alongside building confidence in supporting vulnerable patients and reducing the risk of suicide, this training can be a highly valuable and practical action that staff can take in responding to the death of a patient by suicide.

To enrol in the training, please complete this form: https://forms.office.com/e/1iYYtZZZqr

Note: This training is for GPs and clinical staff with a formal mental health ‘assessment role’ as part of their job role and within a contract (paid or honorary), as they will be trained how to use SAFETool clinically. Please see above for alternative training offers.

Useful links and resources

Resource	Availability	Type of Support	Description
Stay Alive app	National	Self-help mental health resource	The Stay Alive app is a suicide prevention app created by Grassroots Suicide Prevention. It can be used by individuals struggling with suicidal thoughts, or by those worried about someone else.
NHS Crisis Line	London	Crisis helpline	Call 111 and select the mental health option to contact a trained mental health professional who can listen and connect you to the support that you need.
Samaritans	National	Crisis helpline	Call 116 123 for a free, confidential listening service, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Papyrus	National	Crisis helpline	Call 0800 068 4141 or text 88247 to contact the Hopeline, a dedicated suicide prevention for young people aged under 35. Professionals who have been exposed to suicide can access debrief support through this phone number.
SHOUT	National	Crisis Helpline	Text ‘SHOUT’ to 85258 to access free, confidential text support from trained volunteers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Campaign Against Living Miserably	National	Crisis helpline	Call 0800 58 58 58 from 5pm-midnight every day, for free, confidential, anonymous support.
Zero Suicide Alliance Training	National	Training	Free, online, foundational training for anyone who may know somebody struggling with thoughts of suicide. This is suitable for professionals and members of the public with no prior knowledge of suicide prevention, equipping them with the ability to recognise when someone is struggling with suicidal thoughts, as well as how to respond. There are several training courses aimed at supporting different audiences, including autistic people, students, and people in prison.
The Listening Place	London	In-person mental health support	Free face-to-face support with trained volunteers for adults struggling with thoughts of suicide
James’ Place	London	In-person mental health support	Free face-to-face therapy to help men recover from suicidal crisis
Body and Soul – YANA	London	Self-harm and attempted suicide follow-up support	20 week dialectical therapy programme for young people (aged 16-30) who have previously attempted suicide
Andy’s Man Club	Barnet, Enfield, Camden	Peer support	Free peer support groups for men in Euston, Barnet and Ponder’s End.
Coping After Suicide Guidance for Organisations	National	Suicide bereavement	A guide, designed for voluntary and faith organisations and local businesses which aims to support colleagues after someone, such as an employee or service user, may have died by suicide
Amparo Support After Suicide Service	NCL	Suicide bereavement	Emotional and practical support for those bereaved or impacted by suicide.
Help is at Hand	National	Suicide bereavement	Resource for people who have been bereaved by the suicide of a loved one.
Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide	National	Suicide bereavement	2nd Wednesday of every month from 7:00pm until 8:45pm. Telephone: 07934 976 253. Email: haringey@uksobs.org
First Hand	National	Suicide bereavement	A resource for people who are affected by the suicide of someone they did not know. This may be through witnessing a suicide, or responding to an incident as part of your work.

Suicide Prevention Community Grant Fund

To support the local VCFSE sector to make suicide prevention everyone’s business, grant funds of up to £10,000 have been awarded to 10 local organisations to better support service users struggling with thoughts of suicide. The key objectives of this fund were to:

Provide the NCL VCFSE workforce with the confidence and resources they need to better support people struggling with thoughts of suicide

Develop greater collaboration between NHS, local authority and voluntary sector partners

Embed support within communities, led by members of that community

Offer support at an early opportunity to prevent escalation of mental health crisis, in turn reducing pressure on NHS

A summary of each of the projects has been provided below:

Organisation	Organisation Summary	Description of activity
Camden Carers	Camden Carers is a charity supporting unpaid carers with services including counselling, employment and health and lifestyle checks	Training for staff and volunteers, identification of an organisational lead to embed suicide prevention practices and delivery of awareness workshops to empower and support carers.
Colindale Communities Trust	CCT provides vital face-to-face support in Grahame Park, Colindale – one of the UK’s most deprived and culturally diverse neighbourhoods. CCT works with partners to strengthen community resilience and improve mental wellbeing	Hyperlocal approach to suicide prevention in Grahame Park/Colindale. Key activities include community engagement, staff/volunteer training, peer support, wellbeing, outreach, strengthened referrals, and the establishment of a critical incident team to support in the event of a local suicide.
Enfield Saheli	Enfield Saheli is a women-led organisation supporting vulnerable and marginalised women, particularly from racialised communities, facing abuse, isolation and mental health challenges.	Emotional support (counsellor-led and peer-led), awareness workshops and advocacy and referrals for vulnerable and marginalised women in Enfield.
Food for Homeless Project	FFH is a community-led initiative based in Camden dedicated to supporting homeless individuals and those at risk of homelessness or food insecurity.	Embedding suicide prevention practices (training, wellbeing, mental health check ins and referrals) into existing twice-weekly meal sessions for homeless individuals in Camden, supported by training and strengthened referral pathways. Co-production of mental health resources in multiple languages.
Islington Mind	Islington Mind is a VCFSE mental health provider in Islington offering inclusive, community-based support fostering recovery and connection, preventing crisis and easing pressure on statutory services.	Talking therapies and community spaces for LGBTQI+ community, with focus on refugees, young adults and trans/non-binary individuals.
Manor Gardens Welfare Trust	Manor Gardens Welfare Trust is a community health and wellbeing charity based in Islington supporting people to live healthier, more connected, and more fulfilling lives.	Suicide prevention workshops for non-English speaking communities, LGBTQ+ people and young people in Islington, supported by training and co-production of resources.
Positive Role Models	Positive Role Models is a community interest company committed to empowering young people to succeed in life through sport and mentoring	One-to-one and peer-based mentoring, sports-based interventions and educational workshops for young people from marginalised groups.
Resources for Autism	Resources for Autism is a specialist multi-service charity delivering a variety of support projects for autistic people and those who love and care for them across North London	Intensive focussed Behaviour Support Intervention for families with autistic CYP to support them to take ownership and leadership of solutions in understanding and managing behaviour.
SOBS	Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide (SOBS) is a peer-led UK charity dedicated to supporting adults impacted by suicide	Establish two new peer support bereavement groups in Camden & Islington and Barnet, including recruitment, training and supervision of volunteers with lived experience.
Stuart Low Trust	Stuart Low Trust is a charity supporting adults at risk owing to mental health issues and social isolation in North London	Suicide prevention capacity building to increase engagement with men, middle-aged and older adults via marketing, partner engagement and workforce training.