Prince William Opens Birmingham Suicide Prevention Centre
Prince William has opened a new suicide prevention centre in Birmingham, highlighting the need for earlier intervention and wider access to specialist support as Mental Health Awareness Week is marked across the UK.
During a visit to the charity’s newest site, The Times reported that the Prince of Wales toured James’ Place Birmingham and said the country needed more suicide prevention centres, urging a bigger national conversation about preventing suicide and reaching “young men and women earlier”.
James’ Place provides free therapy for men in suicidal crisis and was founded in memory of James Wentworth-Stanley, a Newcastle University student who died in 2006 aged 21. The Birmingham location is the charity’s fourth site, following centres in Liverpool, London and Newcastle, and it was supported by a Times and Sunday Times Christmas Appeal that raised more than £328,000 for the project.
William, whose wider public work has repeatedly highlighted mental health, asked whether the charity could expand nationally, echoing the scale of need as men account for more than three-quarters of suicides in the UK. In Birmingham, he met staff and men who have received support at other sites, and the charity said the new centre is expected to see up to 500 men a year.
The charity said it hopes to open a fifth centre by next year, which would increase capacity to treat up to 2,000 men annually, while continuing to offer short courses of face-to-face therapy sessions to those in crisis.
