SUICIDE PREVENTION
SPEAK UP FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION
Ed Simpson, a retired police officer, highlights the importance of talking to prevent suicide in the force
Worldwide, around 700,000 people die by suicide every year. In England, one in five people say they have had suicidal thoughts at least once in their lifetime. According to data from the Office for National Statistics on suicides by occupation, 169 police officers in England and Wales took their own lives between 2011 and 2019, whereas the National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing records state that 92 police officers died on-duty between 2008 and 2019. Since 2003, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has collaborated with the World Health
34 | POLICE | AUGUST 2022
Organisation to observe 10 September as World Suicide Prevention Day and highlight this important public health issue. The theme of this year’s World Suicide Prevention Day was ‘Creating Hope through Action’ as a reminder that there is an alternative to suicide and that our actions may provide hope to those who are struggling.
ED’S STORY
I remember walking back into work, after 11 months, feeling that I had no right to be there, no right to wear the uniform and no right to call myself a police officer. It was a job I had wanted to do since I was a kid,
but it had destroyed me. In my mind, I was completely worthless, a failure as a father, a husband, a friend and colleague. Eleven months earlier, I was sitting at a
set of traffic lights, on my way to work as a custody sergeant, wishing I was dead and trying to figure out how best to end my life. It was a totally irrational thought, but at the time, in my head, it was completely rational. I believed this was my only way out. I was so unwell, but I had no idea whatsoever, so I hadn’t asked anyone for help. Even though I returned to work, I didn’t
truly start to recover until I told people what had happened to me. The fear I had of being the only one to experience these
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