World Suicide Prevention Day

The Elephant in the Room – Time to Talk about our Emotions

Creating the link between World Suicide Prevention Day: Monday 10th September 2018 and World Mental Health Day: Wednesday 10th October 2018

#elephanttalk

This year, the Health Improvement, Equality and Involvement Department of the Western Trust is linking World Suicide Prevention Day on 10th September and World Mental Health Day on 10th October to encourage people to talk about the ‘elephant in the room’, in other words, the things that we often choose to ignore – our emotions and how we feel. The respective themes for each campaign are ‘Working Together to Prevent Suicide’ and ‘Young People and Mental Health in a Changing World. Central to these themes is how we communicate with each other, how we express our emotions and how we access help when we most need it. In tough times for a whole host of reasons, people find this very difficult, meaning that negative thoughts and feelings get bottled up and hidden away often leading to adverse long-term physical and mental health consequences.