Community organisations take forward suicide prevention research

Since October 2025, eight community organisations around Scotland have been supported to carry out their own research into the theme of suicide prevention as part of Creating Hope Together, Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Strategy.

The focus of their research ranges from wanting to understand how connection through nature and community can help people find hope to exploring how stigma and cultural expectations shape mental health and suicide risk.

Our colleagues at the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) are managing this work along with Penumbra Mental Health, who lead one of our four strategic outcomes alongside Change Mental Health.

They' gathered an update on where each project is around a year into their work.

Eat Sleep Ride, an equine and nature-based community hub in the Scottish Borders, have conducted individual interviews with people who have suicide experience and a statutory sector suicide prevention service provider. They have also carried out a focus group with survivors of bereavement. The group is currently writing up a draft report while gathering more data through further interviews.

Cambuslang and Rutherglen-based community organisation, Healthy n Happy have undertaken, and are now analysing, a focus group with local people with whom they have trusted relationships. This is generated rich data, including interesting feedback regarding the impact of urban planning on mental health and wellbeing. They are currently planning to supplement this method by conducting a photowalk and continuing to promote their survey.

Made for You in ML2, a community-led charity based in Wishaw are primarily using surveys to explore the relationship between food poverty and mental health and suicide prevention. To add more rich detail to the quantitative element of their survey, they have developed some delicately worded questions asking if people want to go into more detail on the issues and also what helps them.

Men Matter Scotland, a hub and support organisation for men operating from a base in Drumchapel, have completed their research with over 75 responses to their survey and workshops/focus groups on building sites. Their research invistigated stigma and mental health challenges for men working in construction, and explored ways to support better wellbeing and open conversations about mental health. They have now evaluated the findings and are finalising their report.

The programme is supporting national non-profit organisation Progress in Dialogue (PID) and Greenbanks Tenants & Resilience group, based in Banff, to explore barriers and support in relation to suicide prevention within the local Gypsy/Traveller community. Taking a reflexive, culturally-sensitive approach to their research, the groups are combining a range of approaches including sense-making workshops, case studies and a gap-analysis report in order to take a Gypsy/Traveller support pathway forward in Aberdeenshire. 

Glasgow-based equality organisation, West of Scotland Regional Equality Council (WSREC) have carried out a survey and focus groups to explore how stigma, cultural expectations, and systemic discrimination shape mental health and suicide risk for women within Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Glasgow and the wider West of Scotland. They have now finished their data collection and are concluding data analysis, with planned outputs for October including a written report, an infographic, and possibly a video. 

Young Movers, a youth charity in the East End of Glasgow, aims to address the mental health inequalities and support barriers faced by young people. They are about to carry out a focus group and have been working on a report as the research progresses, enabling the lead community researcher to document her approach and the learning she has gathered.

Youth Borders, a regional umbrella organisation for youth organisations in the Scottish Borders is currently writing up their research investigating, assessing and evaluating the current quality and availability of support for young people affected by or at risk of suicide. They are exploring different approaches to getting their message across, and are currently working with a comic book creator to design an accessible resource based on the research gathered so far.

You can find out more about the programme and the equally impressive groups from last year’s work, here.