Any concerns about a young person should be referred to your safeguarding or Suicide Intervention Team, following your school/college protocol.

If you’re with a young person who has taken steps to end their life or cannot stay safe, accompany them to A&E (if you are able to do so safely) or call an ambulance to get you there. This is never a waste of emergency services' time. 

If the young person will not engage in helping themselves, e.g. by voluntarily going to A&E – call the police on 999.

*These are our suggestions as an organisation and do not negate your own organisational policies and procedures.*

A 24-hour helpline to speak with a mental health professional during a mental health crisis, with advice and support for carers, family, and friends.

• The grief is often far more intense, and there is often a lack of ‘closure’

• People bereaved may look for ‘answers’ and try to find reasons the person took their life

• Some people may feel there is a stigma associated with death by suicide

• The bereaved are more likely to become socially isolated

• Sometimes, people may feel responsible in some way for a person’s death. For example, if a student took their life and were bullied at school

• People may feel the guilt associated with not anticipating or preventing the suicide

"Talking to Students" - Support After Suicide

Postvention refers to the support and actions taken after a suspected or attempted suicide. It helps others feel safe, supported, and connected, and reduces the risk of further harm.

An autistic person may or may not disclose their autism diagnosis. They may not know themselves that they are autistic. This means that having an awareness of the 

characteristics of autism might be critically important to enable crisis service workers and volunteers to identify autistic traits in those they work with, because individualised, specific support may be necessary, even in the absence of a disclosure or a formal diagnosis.

- "Supporting Autistic Children and Young People through Crisis" - Autistica

If you do not work for a school or college but would like to build a suicide-safer community within your organisation, the following columns will aid you in doing so. 

health and crisis services, to support young autistic people experiencing a mental health crisis. 

The policy should:

1. Identify the Suicide Intervention Team and how it is trained

2. Specify how everyone else in the school or college community will be made suicide-aware

3. Identify when and how stakeholders outside the school or college might be engaged for support

Your policy should be a live document which is reviewed at least every three years so that it can be continually improved in light of experience.

The leadership team should have a clear vision and ethos that sets expectations for positive behaviour across the whole school community.

The whole school community should feel safe and supported to talk about mental health and suicide. A consistent approach to raising awareness is key.

Use a mix of physical and digital tools to promote help-seeking and reduce isolation, such as:

• School intranet

• Planners and noticeboards

• Wellbeing websites

• Nurse’s office, reception, corridors, lunch halls, tutor rooms

See Column F for autism friendly suicide safety plan.

Please note, this is not a crisis line."

Monday - Friday 9:30am - 4:00pm.

2. Implement Suicide Prevention & Intervention Training

Identify, train and sustain a Suicide Intervention Team.

3. Develop a programme of mental health and suicide support

Develop a consistent programme that aims to raise awareness of poor mental heath and suicide with a focus on how staff and students can seek help.

4. Write a Suicide-Safer policy for your school or college
Develop a policy document to guide suicide prevention work in your setting.

5. Develop, maintain and distribute a list of local and national suicide prevention resources
Use columns A-J in this toolkit to achieve this.

You can use this in your own school/college or email englandsouthandeast@papyrus-uk.org if you have other requirements.

For support with this process or to receive a free physical copy, email: englandsouthandeast@papyrus-uk.org

Voicing Masculinities A Bexley outreach project helping young men aged 12–18 explore masculinity, identity, and social justice through creative workshops and performance.

Transition After School Clubs support young people for a successful transition to mainstream secondary school.

Trained advisers help callers stay safe and create a suicide safety plan.

Text: 88247

Email: pat@papyrus-uk.org

Attend our SPEAK course to learn how to support a Suicide Safety Plan.

The guide outlines clear steps for:

• Immediate response

• Communication with families, staff, students, and media

• Setting up a Suicide Postvention Group

• Understanding roles such as leadership, family liaison, and external agency coordination

Having a Suicide-Safer Policy with postvention plans in place helps your community respond safely, compassionately, and effectively.

• Staff who regularly support students due to their role should ideally complete suicide intervention skills training, such as ASIST or Papyrus

  SPEAK (see details below).

• All staff should receive general suicide awareness training, such as Papyrus SPOT.

Training should be refreshed every two years to include new staff and update existing knowledge. Key staff should also be trained to help set up, manage, and sustain a Suicide-Safer community.

Papyrus can provide ongoing support with this.

SPOT, SPEAK and ASIST.

It’s been developed by Papyrus to strengthen the Personal, Social and Health Education offer in schools across England. It gives education staff everything they need to approach these topics safely, confidently and in a way that genuinely helps young people.

The updated government guidance on the RSHE curriculum now includes content on teaching suicide prevention. Schools are expected to have a plan for addressing it safely with secondary pupils, and to ensure staff have the knowledge and skills to do so before working directly with students. Sinking Feeling supports exactly that.

They provide mental health support in schools through one-to-one and group counselling using tried and tested methods backed by research.

Galaxy Youth Club (ages 7–17): 6–8pm
Galaxy Adults Club (18+): 7–9pm

Attached is the link to Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust's direct page which includes their referral form and contact numbers (including for crisis).