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Rural Community Council
The RCC is a registered charity that aims to support and represent rural communities in Leicestershire and Rutland, and to raise awareness of issues that can adversely affect people that live in such communities. We aim to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in rural communities, and a key aspect of this is suicide awareness training. Since 2009, we have delivered over 130 community-based Suicide Awareness training sessions to over 3,000 people.
Our work in suicide prevention
At the Rural Community Council (RCC) We work with people across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland to raise awareness and help to prevent suicide. This is mainly through delivery of our simple but effective training sessions. These help people to examine their own attitudes; spot common risk factors and warning signs, and learn simple steps to help people in distress or affected by suicide.
The significant majority of these sessions are based in local communities, are open to all, and free to attend. We believe that raising awareness and building resilience in local communities is crucial to suicide prevention – particularly as many people who die by suicide will not necessarily be receiving support from other (including mental health) services.
The RCC has long been a member of the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland suicide prevention strategy group and has contributed to strategy development and various ‘task and finish’ groups.
Our current priorities
We aim to continue delivering Suicide Awareness training across Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, with a focus on fostering greater diversity in engagement. Our goal is to reach deeper into local communities to raise awareness about suicide prevention and promote the belief that everyone has the potential to support someone in distress. We encourage active participation in the local #StartAConversation suicide prevention campaign.
Our current challenges
No doubt in common with most voluntary and community (and other) organisations, further resources would enable us to deliver a more comprehensive service.
More generally, although we believe there has been significant progress over recent years to reduce stigma and raise awareness in the general population, we still encounter some resistance to the message that suicide can/should be everybody’s concern. Gaining access to challenge such views (and possibly to challenge attitudes or procedures) can be an obstacle.