Reach Out for Mental Health (ROFMH) is a suicide prevention service supporting individuals in Essex, over 18 who are living with suicidal thoughts. ROFMH offers individuals a 12 week befriending service with fully trained volunteers. Once a client is accepted into the service they are paired up with a volunteer who will call them once a week for up to 1 hour. During that hour the client can talk about whatever it is which may be causing them distress, it can be due to something which has happened recently or something which happened a long time ago. We don’t try to fix people, tell them what to do or give them advice. We listen. Initially ROFMH was set up to support residents living in Thurrock. However, through word of mouth and Facebook shares we began receiving referrals from across Essex. The majority of our referrals still originate from Thurrock. We recognise that suicidality is a spectrum and to stop people from falling through the gaps we accept referrals for individuals who aren’t necessarily experiencing suicidal thoughts. 

Office for National Statistics data has shown Essex had a higher rate of suicides than the national average in 2019. It also shows Tendring to have the second highest rate in England and Colchester the third. Suicide rates in Essex have risen steadily since 2015 and this gradual increase is also out of step with national trends, where levels were falling until a recent increase over the past 18 months.

We evaluate clients around 3 weeks after they've completed support with us these are some of the responses we've received:

• 100% of clients said our service had helped them. 

• 100% of clients said they felt they were treated with dignity and respect 

• 100% of clients said they would recommend us to friends and family 

• Over 88% of those who felt suicidal when receiving our service said they now feel less suicidal 

• 100% of people said they felt they could now recognise when their mental health would decrease