Suicide Prevention: Speak Their Name: Supporting Families Bereaved by Suicide

Throughout the first lockdown, people in Greater Manchester bereaved by suicide joined an online community to create a quilt in memory of those lost to suicide. Speak Their Name: Greater Manchester Suicide Memorial Quilt was unveiled at Manchester Art Gallery ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day 2020.

It is made of 54 unique squares, each one created by someone bereaved by suicide.

Adele Owen QPM is Greater Manchester Suicide Prevention Programme Manager at the Greater Manchester Health & Social Care Partnership. Adele joined the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership in 2018. She works across the city region to prevent suicide and support those bereaved by suicide, leading the city’s Shining a Light on Suicide campaign, and establishing the Greater Manchester Bereavement Service.

In 2020 she initiated the creation of the Speak Their Name: Greater Manchester Suicide Memorial Quilt and the online Greater Manchester suicide bereavement peer support group. Adele brings to her role 21 years of policing experience, responding to those experiencing suicidal thoughts, those who have taken their lives and those bereaved by suicide.

She set up the first mental health peer support network in UK policing, was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2016 to explore this area further and now sits on the National Police Suicide Prevention Group. In 2018, she was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the New Year’s Honours List for her distinguished service. In this session from the Suicide Prevention 2021 conference, Adele discussed the motivations behind launching the project, how they brought