Preventing and Responding to Student Suicide

This comprehensive book is written with compassion and understanding, with a rigorous focus on the latest evidence. The team have managed to make a complex field accessible, and crucially to ask and answer the questions that matter most. Like me, I’m sure it will leave you feeling informed and hopeful. – Rosie Tressler OBE, CEO, Student MindsAn important and thought-provoking book to help the HE sector to better understand the issues of student suicide. It offers practical changes to institutional mental health and wellbeing provision which develops supportive, compassionate and inclusive learning communities for both our staff and students. – Kate Wicklow, Policy Manager at GuildHEThis is such an important book and enables everyone to understand the importance of wellbeing and good mental health in every aspect of life in further and higher education. It also provides a real challenge to the sector to position the mental health of all staff and students as a strategic priority, from knowing how to keep well to ensuring that the right support is in place when needed… all through a community wide, whole organisation approach. – Hamish Elvidge Chair, The Matthew Elvidge Trust Founder Member, Mental Health in Higher Education Advisory Group Member, National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group

Sharon Mallon BSc, PhD, SFHEA, is a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at The Open University. Her teaching areas include critical approaches to mental health theory and practice. She was awarded a PhD for her qualitative study of the impact of student suicide from the perspective of their friends and was one of the authors of the RaPSS study (Response and Prevention in Student Suicide). Her research interests have developed to include social approaches to understanding death by suicide and exploring the wider impact of suicide bereavement on different bereaved groups.

Jo is an Emeritus Professor of Early Intervention and Psychosis at University of Worcester. She is a Clinical Psychologist by profession, with 34 years NHS clinical experience. Jo was project lead for ‘Suicide Safer’ a multiagency student suicide prevention initiative at University of Worcester, shortlisted for a Times HE (2018) ‘Outstanding Support for Students’ Award. She is a member of the international ‘Zero Suicide’ initiative and co-authored the ‘International Declaration on Zero Suicide in Healthcare’, published in 2015. She was a member of national UUK working groups which produced UUK (2017) ‘#Stepchange: Mental health in Higher Education’, UUK (2018) ‘Minding Our Future’ and UUK and PAPYRUS (2018) ‘Suicide Safer Universities’ Toolkit. Jo has supervised two PhD research studentships exploring aspects of student suicide in UK HE.