Co-researchers Out and About!
Our co-researchers Keira and Kelsey have been out and about recently; they have attended the Blackpool and Fylde College University Centre Freshers’ Fair to spread the word about our work as part of Blackpool Researching Together (Blackpool HDRC) and the ‘Let’s Talk About Suicide 2025’ event ran by Empowerment Healthwatch.
Keira says ‘We attended our second freshers fair, where we interacted with different students and organisations. We felt this event was super valuable. We heard about others work and engaged with students studying different subjects and we could see how our priority areas aligned with their interests and needs. We split our group into two for "shifts", where one would stay at our stall and the other would walk around for further engagement/handing out QR cards for our newsletter.’
Our stall at the Blackpool and Fylde College Freshers Fair
They also attended the ‘Let’s Talk About Suicide 2025’ event ran by Empowerment Healthwatch. The purpose of the event was inform and raise awareness around suicide and the things that can be put in place for prevention. Our co-researchers attended as it is relevant to our priority area of Mental Health. Our co-researchers also welcomed the opportunity to ‘be able to speak with other organisations who are in a similar sector which builds good connections and helps us learn more about them too.’ Keira Co-researcher.
Keira says that ‘The organisations there, ranged from mental health support charities to bereavement for those who have lost someone. We listened to many speakers such as Solaris and Alfie's squad.’ Keira’s key takeaway was ‘There are so many people who care and have seen a gap in support, so they've created it from the ground up e.g Alfies squad.’
Keira also fed back about destigmitzing talking about mental health, ‘Multiple speakers mentioned the theme around mental health being taboo, that can lead to people not reaching out for help. They wanted to break that stereotype down and spoke very passionately about how it needs to change.’
We look forward to our Co-researchers attending more events in the community.
Empowerment Stall at the Suicide Prevention Conference
Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide stall at the Suicide Prevention Conference