Family’s heartfelt ‘Chris’s Voice’ campaign highlights importance of suicide prevention: Patient stories

A powerful suicide prevention campaign, helping healthcare specialists to speak up and champion a patient’s care, has been launched at a health trust in the Tees Valley.

‘Chris’s Voice’, an important campaign developed by the Irish family, was created after beloved brother and son, Chris Irish, sadly lost his life to suicide in 2021.

The campaign, started at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust in November, is about empowering healthcare professionals to positively look at ways to better advocate and protect vulnerable patients. It looks to raise awareness of where opportunities may be missed and where improvements can be made to help prevent suicide.

Advocates in preventing suicide

Rachel Irish, Chris’s sister, has been a stalwart champion for Chris’s Voice, promoting and developing the campaign with her family. She presented at the organisation’s annual ‘Celebrating Excellence’ event in October ahead of the campaign launch.

Rachel said: “Chris was the youngest of four siblings and was deeply cherished by his parents Mick and Trish, nana Nancy and three sisters – Anna, Nicola and myself. Despite receiving warmth and support from his close-knit family, Chris faced challenging mental health struggles for many years and sadly lost his battle in 2021.

“Our family developed the campaign, so that we could continue to be Chris’s voice by sharing his story. It’s important to highlight where opportunities were missed that may have prevented him from taking his own life.

“We hope to give other patients and families a voice and in turn, help to improve the care and support available for them.”

The ‘Chris’s Voice’ campaign is being rolled out across North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and the family is also hoping to launch the campaign at Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust soon.

Rachel continues: “We want to encourage healthcare professionals to speak up if they disagree with a decision made regarding a patient’s care. It’s also about highlighting the importance of listening to families who know their loved ones best, better escalating care and liaising with other professionals to develop the best care plan and to ensure safer discharges.

“Through the campaign, we want to reduce the stigma associated with mental health and eliminate judgement.

“By continuing to speak passionately and advocating for Chris, we want suicide prevention and mental health to become part of everyday workplace conversations and to improve outcomes for patients so families don’t have to go through the same loss that we have.”

Empowering staff to champion the patient’s voice

In England there were 6,069 confirmed deaths to suicide in 2023 (ONS). This is an average of 116 people dying every week. Suicide is the biggest killer of people under the age of 35 and the biggest killer of men under the age of 50.

Viv Priestley, service lead for urgent and emergency care, said: “Suicide, sadly, affects thousands of people every year in England.

“Ensuring our patients’ safety when under our care is something every individual healthcare professional has a shared responsibility to do. We want our staff to be aware that it can be just as important to share information in certain circumstances as it is to protect confidentiality. This is supported by the Caldicott Principles.

“We hope to continue to welcome Rachel and her family to share Chris’s story with staff, so we can work together to continue to improve and develop the very best care plan to support patients and their families experiencing a suicidal crisis.

“This is such an important campaign, and Rachel and her family’s passion for improving suicide prevention for other patients is so inspiring.”