Do they not care who dies by suicide?!
In May, Ian Russell, father of Molly, the 14 year old, who took her own life in November 2017 after viewing harmful material on social media, received an MBE in recognition of his online safety campaigning.
Since Molly's death, Ian has spent years demanding changes from tech giants to protect vulnerable children, setting up the Molly Rose Foundation in her memory and contributing to the establishment of the Online Safety Act announced in October 2023.
Within months of the act being passed, Ian and others were becoming dismayed by Ofcom's approach to holding the social media companies to account, describing the approach as 'risk averse'.
This week and in response to Ofcom publishing its final codes of practice for how firms should deal with illegal content as the Online Safety Act takes effect, the Molly Rose Foundation shared on 'X'; 'We are astonished and disappointed there is not one single targeted measure for social media platforms to tackle suicide and self-harm material that meets the criminal threshold in today's codes despite this being a priority harm.'
Last week, I spoke with Jake Mills, founder of Chasing the Stigma and the Hub of Hope, which provides invaluable signposting to vital mental health and suicide prevention support services simply by typing a postcode entry into its website. Jake explained his frustration and exhaustion trying to obtain funding via the DHSC and the NHS and constantly being told there is no funding available. Incredibly, more than 50% of the referrals to the Hub of Hope come from the NHS and yet, they're not able to support this important service.
'All indications are suggesting that the current UK Government is not committed to mental health.'
In September 2023, the government published it National Suicide Prevention Strategy 5-year plan. 15 months on, we are yet to see any sign of the action plan.
This week, the lead adviser on suicide prevention to the government took to 'X' to share the most recent data for England & Wales, tweeting; 'So the bad news is this wasn’t a blip. It has continued well into 2024' he was referring of course, to the continued increase in suicide numbers following the 7% increase announced for 2023.
If those who set the standards in our country are not capable of upholding such requirements, then is it time for those who really care to come to together and make the difference that is needed?
If you care that we are losing 120 men, women and children to suicide every week in this country, impacting more than 810,000 people annually, at a cost to the UK economy of £10 billion, then I'd urge you to do 2 things:
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#suicideprevention
