How would you prevent someone from attempting to take their own life from a tower block, high rise apartment building, office block, a bridge or multi-story carpark? Would you place warning signs or perhaps a barrier to prevent access?

The latest suicide figures for the UK showed that in 2019, 5691 people took their own lives and around a third of these deaths are in outside the home in a public place. What if, instead of installing barriers to access, we got designers, architects or builders, to design out the ability for someone to access any of these structures in the first place?

On Friday, April 30th at 1pm-3pm, The Jordan Legacy CIC will be holding another in its series of #HopeForLifeUK events, aimed at improving mental wellbeing and preventing suicides - this event is specifically aimed at how we can design out the opportunity for someone to be able to take their own life in public places, including high-level structures. However, the concept of Design Out is about more than simply making changes to how the Built Environment creates structures, it's also about how human systems and processes can impact on the mental health of those who work in the industry.

This is a discussion panel event, including presentations, from

Panel Chair is Dr Liz Walder of Architecture Matters and Visiting Lecturer at WISA (Wales Institute of Science and Art) at University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Panel 1 - Relating to Design and Architecture

Tom Osborne, Director of Knight Architects – works exclusively in bridge design, including suicide prevention projects, where the importance of safety has to be balanced with not restricting peoples' enjoyment of crossing such structures

Alice Brownfield, Associate Director at Peter Barber Architects, London - Alice won the M J Long Prize for 2021 for Excellence in Practice for work done in the construction of housing which has a positive impact on the social and mental wellbeing of those living in communities.

Ian Standen, Senior Lecturer and Programme Director Architecture in the School of Architecture, Built and Natural Environments at University of Wales Trinity Saint David - Ian will feature Bronwen's Wish and how engineering students are involved in helping design safe spaces for children and young people

Matt Morgan - co-Director of the Quality of Life Foundation, writer and communications consultant, primarily for architects and designers. Matt will explore how the right design can help reduce isolation in communities and the lessons learnt from his own lived experienceof suicide.

Panel 2 - Discussing other aspects of suicide prevention relevant to the built environment

Professor Christabel Owens - recently retired from the University of Exeter after more than 20 years working in the field of suicide prevention. She is the author of the national guidance on Preventing Suicides in Public Places (Public Health England, 2015) and has worked closely with local public health teams, developers and other agencies throughout the UK to try to improve safety at frequently-used locations.

Matthew Steans, Founder of Stigma Statistics – using data and tracking technology to prevent suicides, including how Stigma's Beacon system monitors unusual and at risk behaviours on bridges, multi story parking and construction sites.

Maria Coulter - Non-executive Director at the Construction Industry Council and Business Coach, with a career spanning 20 years in the industry as a Quantity Surveyor, Project Manager and Risk Manager - With 96% of the construction industry made up of SME businesses, Maria explores how poor design of business systems can lead to anxiety, stress and in some cases suicides.

Jo Kent - Suicide Prevention Lead at Humber Coast and Vale Health & Care Partnership/Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation. With suicides from the Humber Bridge featuring prominently in the news recently, Jo will explain about the work the Humber region is doing to prevent suicides.

As well as presenting their own views on how we can design out suicide, the panel will be asked to consider a range of topics for discussion, including:

• building regulations, should adaptations be made?

• architecture - how can designing out suicide be incorporated?

• surveying - what would surveyors need to look out for?

• design councils and their role in designing out suicide

• design thinking consultancy - what opportunities exist here?

• construction firms - how do systems and processes need to change?

• engineering schools and colleges / architecture universities - designing out suicide for the future

• RIBA, RICS, RSA etc - how do they influence and support their members when it comes to designing out suicide?

• government planning departments - what should their role be in preventing suicide?

This project is being led by Dr. Liz Walder, (See image below) who is a Visiting Lecturer at WISA (Wales Institute of Science and Art) at University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Her PhD, on the subject of the Royal Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), was awarded from the School of Architecture at the University of Liverpool in 2012, and was published by Wordcatcher Publishing in 2019.

In addition to her teaching work, Liz also runs a successful architectural design consultancy Architecture Matters Limited, based in south Wales.

This event is another in The Jordan Legacy CIC's series of #HopeForLifeUk initiatives.

The event is free to attend, although we would greatly appreciate a donation to support our Mission. The Jordan Legacy is a Community Interest Company, a charitable organisation, which relies solely on donations and others' support to enable us to continue our work in helping move toward a Zero Suicide society.

If you would like to support our work, please follow this link and you will find a Donate button in the orange band in the top section of our website's Home page.