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Highland News & Media
  • 02/12/2024
Patrick Mullery from James Support Group
Transcript
00:00There's been a number of recent suicides in the Highland area, and I was just wondering
00:07if you could be able to tell me a bit more about that and the impact your charity has
00:12in times like these?
00:14Yeah, there has been. The Black Isle itself has had three suicides in October. In fact,
00:21they were one day after each, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. One of those was known to us in
00:26our little village of Cromarty, which affected the whole village. And in fact, the previous
00:31week, there was another one in Inverness for a UHI student, so that made a total of four
00:36suicides in only eight days. We have obviously tried to help and support as many people as
00:41possible, not just the students in UHI and Inverness from that horrible tragedy, but
00:46also the families of the three suicides on the Black Isle. We actually run a couple of
00:52extra meetings on top of our normal monthly meetings, one in Cromarty and one in Fort
00:58Troves, and two out of the three families attended those meetings.
01:02And you mentioned about winter being a sort of peak period for suicides. What does that
01:08mean for a charity like yourselves?
01:10Yeah, what it means really is it's a much busier time. We have a 24-7 helpline, which
01:15rings occasionally, of course, not all the time, but it does ring. But in the winter
01:20time, you know, start of October to the end of March is considered to be the peak for
01:24suicides here in the Highlands. And we think a lot that's because of the short daylight
01:28hours. Things seem a lot worse when you wake up in the morning and it's not bright, it's
01:33not sunny. If you get up in the morning, it's already dark. It's still dark sort of thing,
01:38and then you go to work and it's dark, and when you get home, it's dark. You're not getting
01:42the daylight that you need and your body needs. You're getting those vitamins and minerals
01:47on your body and it's all the feel-good factors of it. So short daylight hours really does
01:54not help the situation. And it only really exacerbates things like loneliness and isolation
02:00because there's not a lot of people around in the evenings when it's dark and cold.
02:03So James' support group is currently facing a funding crisis. What would it mean if we
02:10were to lose your charity?
02:13Well yeah, all I can say to you is in the six and a half years we've been going, the
02:17charity's grown and it's grown because there's a lot of people needing support and help.
02:22So it's like a bittersweet thing. It's grown because people are more aware of us. It's
02:27good that it's growing, but it's actually not so good that it's grown because it's growing
02:30because people need the help because the help isn't really there. So if we wasn't here to
02:35give that support, where would they go?
02:37What do you think needs to be done to get yourselves out of this funding crisis?
02:42Okay, that's a really hard question. Probably the hardest part of my job is actually speaking
02:48to someone who's just lost someone to suicide, particularly when it's a child. And the second
02:53hardest part, believe it or not, is when we are applying for a fund. Funding applications
02:58help us to keep us going. That is a really difficult thing. And this year we've been
03:03very unlucky. We've not had any positive responses. So what can be done to answer your question?
03:10I don't know, maybe something from the government to help charities like ours who are doing
03:14good and helping many, many people. I reckon we helped about 2,500 people in the last 12
03:20month period. And we'll certainly do the same again this year. So we are saving the NHS
03:26and the police forces and the government really lots of money by doing this. And if they can
03:32help us, that would be fantastic. And if they're not going to help us, which these things don't
03:37happen overnight anyway, we actually rely on people making donations. So we have a Facebook
03:43group, people can join. We have a web page and on that page is a donate tab. You can
03:48donate through PayPal, or you can message us and we can give you bank details if you'd
03:52like to make a donation to help us go, help us keep going. Even when it's coming up to
03:56Christmas, some people stop sending cards and make donations instead. That's a fantastic
04:00way of doing it. So it's not a great amount of money from each person, but if a lot of
04:05people did it, it makes a massive difference to us. It can really help us, you know, help
04:10us help others.

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