Bury’s first Suicide Prevention Conference on June 18th 2025, titled "We're In This Together" brought together mental health professionals, community leaders, employers, advocates, and individuals affected by suicide to work together towards saving lives. This conference focused on raising awareness, providing resources, and developing strategies to prevent suicide in our communities and workplaces. Organised by Rebecca Jackson from the Big Fandango, Lorna Wilson and Tom Wild from The Creative Living Centre with support from Jim McGlynn from Bury Public Health 

Speakers covered a variety of topics including changing the narrative around suicide prevention and care, risk within the neurodiverse community and the importance of community within mental health support.

Speakers included:
Rebecca Jackson - CEO The Big Fandango , a suicide prevention organisation in Bury offering suicide prevention training , peer support for families bereaved by suicide and a sewing studio space to learn new skills, build confidence and prevent loneliness and isolation

Paul Vittles - Designer & facilitator of The Zero Suicide Society Join The Dots Transformation Programme and directly involved in the development of a British Standard for Suicide Prevention.

Russ Magnall - Facilitator and trainer in workplace mental wellbeing, founder of Safe and Sound, veteran police commander and coach.

Julia Waters - sister of Ruth Perry, Head teacher who took her own life following an OFSTED inspection, Julia has been campaigning for a safer, fairer, more supportive school accountability system.

Bob Abrahart - For The 100, following the death of his daughter Natasha to suicide Bob is a campaigner for a duty of care in Higher Education to protect students and staff

Sarmad Nadeem FRCPsych. Dr Nadeem is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Clinical Lead for Community transformation at Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust where he chairs the Suicide Prevention Committee.

Njal Long - Service Manager , Trauma-informed therapist and suicide prevention lead at We Are Survivors. A voluntary organisation who provides and facilitates safe spaces for males (inc. trans & non binary) who have experienced harms (sexual abuse, rape and sexual exploitations)

Andy Smith - Andy runs Spectrum Gaming, a charity in Bury working with autistic young people. Andy is passionate about suicide prevention and will be talking about suicide risk and prevention with neuro divergent people
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Lorna Wilson - Interim Chief Officer of the Creative Living Centre, a mental health and wellbeing charity in Prestwich discussing the importance of community mental health support

Jim McGlynn - Suicide Prevention lead for Bury Council

In the afternoon we had a panel discussion on understanding commonalities within at-risk groups included Lorna Wilson to facilitate, Carly Bond, BIG from the perspective of those bereaved by suicide, David Catterall LGBTQ+ and Andrew Murray from Andys Man Club.

We have our second CLC Community Heroes Opportunity scheduled for the 2nd June 2025.

As part of the 5 ways to wellbeing model this project is designed to focus on Giving Back. By helping others we can support our community, help others, have fun, interact and learn new skills. So, if you are a member of the CLC, come and help with our next event to cook a meal for Prestwich Street Kitchen. Book your place with reception

We have an open session on Friday 16th May 2025 for anyone who is interested in finding out about volunteering with the Creative Living Centre. The session will take place with Anne our volunteer coordinator from 11am - 12.30pm. Interested in volunteering? Come on down and see what we do!

Dates for your Diary!
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This year, Mental Health Awareness week takes place from the 12th to 18th May 2025 and the theme is 'community'. The Creative Living Centre has been part of the community for 28 years and have built our own community of staff, members, volunteers and partners to create a person-centred welcoming space for those facing mental health and wellbeing challenges.

Being part of a safe, positive community is vital for our mental health and wellbeing. We thrive when we have strong connections with other people and supportive communities that remind us, we are not alone. Communities can provide a sense of belonging, safety, support in hard times, and give us a sense purpose.
As always, for Mental Health Awareness week, we open our doors to the community. People can access the sessions on the attached timetable free of charge. If you have ever wondered what we do, this is your chance to find out more. We look forward to meeting you.

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