Cornwall wants your voice in new suicide prevention plan

Behind every one of Cornwall’s suicide figures is a family, a workplace, a street, a friendship group left to make sense of a loss that never fully goes away. Cornwall Council says it wants that reality to shape what happens next, and it is asking people across the county to help write the plan meant to prevent it happening again.

📷Credit: Cornwall Council

A plan under review

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Suicide Prevention Strategy has been running since 2022, built around reducing inequalities, promoting mental health and wellbeing, and making sure people get the right support at the right time. That strategy runs to 2027, and work is already under way on what comes next, a refreshed version due early in 2027 that will carry the plan through to 2037.

Before that refresh is finalised, the council wants to check it still has the right priorities, and whether the things that were agreed back in 2022 still reflect what is actually needed on the ground now.

Who the council wants to hear from

The consultation is aimed particularly at people who see the issue from a professional or organisational angle. That means health, social care, education, voluntary sector and emergency service staff, along with employers and community organisations across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. People with direct lived experience, whether through their own struggles, supporting someone else, or being bereaved by suicide, have already been involved in shaping the draft strategy, and their input has fed into the priorities now open for wider comment.

What the survey is asking

The survey, which takes around ten minutes, is built around five questions the council says will shape the final strategy:

• What is working well in suicide prevention across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
• What challenges people continue to face when trying to access support
• Whether the strategy’s current priorities are still the right ones
• What additional actions or areas of focus should be considered
• How services and communities can work together more effectively on prevention and recovery

Responses are treated confidentially and handled under data protection rules, though open-text answers may be published in full as part of the consultation record.

Taking part

The consultation is open now and closes on 13 September 2026. Cornwall Council says the responses will directly inform the new strategy due to be finalised in early 2027.

Support if you need it now

Cornwall Council has built support information into the consultation page itself, in case reading about the subject brings anything up. If someone is in immediate danger, the advice is to call 999 or go straight to the nearest emergency department. For urgent mental health support that isn’t a 999 situation, NHS 111 has a dedicated mental health option (choose option 2), Samaritans can be reached free on 116 123 at any hour of the day or night, and a GP practice can also help.

Cornwall Council also runs an Orange Button Community Scheme and, through Healthy Cornwall, training courses in subjects including Mental Health First Aid, Suicide First Aid and self-harm awareness, for anyone who wants to be better equipped to support someone else.