Latest newsletter from Suicide Prevention Scotland - December 2025
17 Dec 25
The team at Public Health Scotland have published the latest Suicide Prevention Scotland newsletter (December 2025).
Created for people working in suicide prevention, it provides a helpful round-up of all the latest news from across our wider network.
As 2025 comes to a close, the latest Suicide Prevention Scotland newsletter highlights the scale, depth and diversity of work taking place across the country.
This year has seen continued momentum in delivering Creating Hope Together, Scotland’s suicide prevention strategy. Public awareness work has remained a central focus, with the national campaign What if a conversation about suicide could save a life? shortlisted for Scottish Public Sector Campaign of the Year 2025.
While the award was not secured, the nomination itself reflects the growing recognition of suicide prevention as everyone’s business.
New Time, Space and Compassion practice stories, with a focus on children and young people, were published recently. These stories highlight how compassionate approaches can make a meaningful difference when people are experiencing suicidal crisis.
Community-led approaches have also been strengthened through the announcement of a new cohort of Community-Led Action Research (CLAR) projects.
Funded by the Scottish Government and delivered in partnership with COSLA, these projects place communities at the heart of identifying challenges and developing solutions, ensuring suicide prevention work reflects local experience and need.
The December newsletter also highlights Samaritans Scotland's new manifesto - Five Priorities to Save Lives. The manifesto outlines five key asks of the next Scottish Government, urging all parties to make suicide prevention a priority across different policy areas.
Samaritans Scotland will also once again be hosting Brew Monday events this January 19th. The campaign aims to combat the myth of ‘Blue Monday’ by encouraging people to reach out and catch up over a cuppa.
Our new report marking the first three years of the Creating Hope with Peer Support project is now available to download. In the report you will find stories of the people and services that are driving real change within suicide prevention and hear about what the project has achieved and plans to do next.
The newsletter also highlights the Gathering Hope 2026 event, which takes place on January 29th in Stirling. Gathering Hope 2026 will provide space for organisations working in suicide prevention, mental health, and community wellbeing to deepen relationships, strengthen collaboration, and explore what we can achieve together to prevent suicide in Scotland.
Our national delivery lead Haylis Smith has also reflected on the last12 months of focused work in our mission to prevent suicide.