Dear Friends

At this year’s AGM  I was, once again, able to report a steady growth in the various aspects of PAPYRUS’s  work.

 

During the past year in addition to David Hanson MP we have acquired two more patrons – the Rt Hon David Heathcoat-Amory MP and Simon Hughes MP.

 

The membership stands at 271 although the number of individual members is considerably more than this since some memberships include a whole family or the members of an organisation.

 

We have had the full complement of 13 Trustee / Directors this year, and Management Meetings – 6 in all – have taken place in Preston, Birmingham and London. All the current Trustees have agreed to continue next year - with the exception of Alan Murphy who becomes our new Treasurer.

 

One member has joined us as a Trustee - Brian Jenkins is an ex company director from Ixworth in Suffolk.

 

We have increased our staffing again. Denise Hardman, the admin assistant in the office, is now working full time and, to date, we have employed 4 helpline advisers for HOPELineUK. Particular attention has been paid to addressing our obligations as employers. To this end Contracts of Employment have been revised and an Employee’s Handbook produced.

represented on various suicide prevention committees around the country - for example; some of the NIMHE regional committees. We have been involved in the production of the Department of Health bereavement support pack and have contributed to consultation documents such as the guidelines for treating depression in children which have been produced by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE)

 

The internet campaign is ongoing. Paul Kelly, who is co-ordinating it, has plans in the pipeline for taking the campaign forward.

 

The University of Central Lancashire research team is half way through the study on responses and prevention in student suicides and have already made some interesting preliminary findings.

 

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On the resource side – the

Need 2 Talk? booklet has been distributed to all 14 Young Offender Institutions, YoungPAPYRUS have produced their first leaflet – Listen to Me, and a teaching pack for ambulance staff is currently being developed.  Thanks to Kevin Lawley (Partners in Publishing), all our literature now reflects the PAPYRUS corporate image. Some of the pages on the website have been updated or rewritten and Colin Davies of iocommunications has modified the website so that it too reflects our ‘brand’ image.

 

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The PAPYRUS helpline – HOPELineUK - which was launched in September, takes us into a whole new arena – that of service provision. We’re very grateful to Janet Roberts, Helpline Manager, and her staff for their help and commitment to this project.

 

Again there has been a lot of interest from the media; mostly reactive on our part although some has been generated by us - particularly to publicise the helpline and the internet campaign.

 

Our income has increased again this year - along with our expenditure. Financial support comes from many sources; subscriptions, donations, fundraising events, grants and

Gift Aid. All contributions, large or small, are much appreciated. Trustee Anita Sutcliffe has been bearing the burden of securing funding year on year – a task which will become increasingly onerous as the organisation grows.

 

Despite all this there are issues which we need to consider in the near future. We are very grateful to the East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust for the free use of an office in the admin block of Rossendale Hospital. However, there is a great deal of uncertainty regarding our future on this site since the future of Rossendale Hospital is itself currently under review. To this extent our lease has not, as yet, been renewed by the Trust. The size of the office is also inadequate for our needs – Tony and Denise are currently using a storage unit off site which is both inconvenient and time consuming to visit.

 

Ideally we require more office based staff too. We desperately need an experienced PR person to take on the media and marketing side of things as well as the newsletter.

 

A move to bigger premises and the acquisition of additional staff will only be possible if and when our income increases.

 

As alluded to earlier, Keith Sutcliffe has stepped down as Treasurer. The Trustees are immensely grateful to him for his careful management of the PAPYRUS funds over the past five years. His commendable housekeeping skills have ensured that we have always functioned within our means. We wish him well in this his second retirement !

 

In conclusion it only remains for me to thank everyone associated with PAPYRUS for their ongoing support and their commitment to helping to prevent suicide in the young.

 

Many thanks

Anne Parry

So. what have we achieved over the past twelve months ?

 

As usual staff, Trustees and members have between them been involved in many activities.

 

People have attended conferences both as delegates or participants. PAPYRUS is