CALM – Campaign Against Living Miserably is a suicide prevention charity focused on supporting people in crisis without resorting to suicide. They offer vital services for anyone struggling with mental health issues, including support for those bereaved by suicide, individuals concerned about someone at risk, or those experiencing suicidal thoughts.
To effectively fulfill their mission, CALM needs to stay informed about advancements in suicide prevention. This involves keeping track of new academic research, changes in local and national policies in the UK, and understanding public attitudes towards mental health and suicide in popular culture and media.
CALM is launching a research initiative with UCL to enhance their knowledge base and research capabilities across three main areas: Academic Research, Policy Practice, and Popular Culture. They are seeking 3 volunteers, each focusing on one of these areas, to investigate suicide prevention in the UK. These research streams are crucial for informing CALM's life-saving initiatives, PR strategies, and advocacy efforts.
Additionally, CALM is interested in insights related to youth, loneliness, healthcare (including the NHS), equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), and social factors affecting suicide rates (such as living costs, poverty, unemployment, housing, and education).
This collaborative study with UCL aims to validate engagement, reduce the research burden on CALM's team, and lay the groundwork for future research priorities. It offers students a valuable opportunity to understand how research contributes to the work of a forward-thinking charity and learn to communicate research findings effectively outside of academic settings.
Volunteer’s main duty is to investigate the existing state of suicide prevention knowledge, awareness and mitigating strategies within the respective research streams:
Academic Research
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Synthesise key findings insight into the origins and determining factors of suicide and loneliness
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Building an actionable conceptual model of the problem and how solutions interface with the other two research streams
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Help inform thinking and culture at CALM to be in alignment with the most up-to-date thinking, theories and methodologies for mental health understanding and treatment
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Uncovering the complex web of intersectionality around loneliness, suicidality and society – particularly as they relate to, and inform, the other streams
Policy Practise
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Understanding how societal value is delivered through effective policy setting, specifically around these key issues
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Determining the current state of policies and policy thinking around suicide prevention
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Critiquing current policy failures and developing awareness of where progress is needed – particularly in relation to keeping up with contemporary knowledge and prevailing opinions
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Establishing a mechanism/process/approach for instilling insights made from academic research into policy development and the intersectionality of mental health
Popular Culture
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Reflecting on the expression of important themes around mental health and suicide within societal attitudes
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Thinking about how academic conceptualisations and policy are playing out in reality among the population – particularly in relation to current events and social issues (e.g. environmental catastrophe, cost of living, political inaction)
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Uncovering how people are talking about suicide and what the prevailing stances/perspectives are
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Critically analysing the relationship between modern life and deteriorating mental health statistics – especially in trying to explain shifts in the most critically lonely age groups (thought to be older people – now becoming young people)
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Informing advocacy at CALM for people who are likely to be most lonely