Based in NW England, Angela is perhaps best known for presenting the BBC1 BAFTA-nominated and winner of the Mind Media Award for Best Factual TV documentary ‘Life After Suicide’. The film encouraged discussion and exploration of mental health issues, challenging the stigma of suicide.

Describing her own experience and that of her children after her partner took his own life 17 years ago, Angela travelled the length and breadth of the UK talking to others who had experienced the same loss. The documentary was aired as part of the BBC’s Mental Health Season #InTheMind and was watched worldwide by over 5 million viewers.

Angela has spent her career working across the Arts and Mental Health and speaks regularly on both subjects around the globe. A founding member of the Speakers Collective, Angela sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group for Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention and is a member of Tate Liverpool’s advisory board. She co-authored the NHS70 Parliamentary award-winning Suicide Prevention Zero Suicide Alliance training which has now been accessed by over 2 million people across the UK and multiple countries.

Angela’s talk

Preventing History from Repeating Itself: the Need for Postvention in Suicide Prevention

This is the story of Angela’s lived experience of being bereaved by suicide and becoming a single parent and widow at 32 in October 2003. Her children were a mere 3 & 13 years old and we were collectively forced up the steepest of learning curves that she genuinely wishes nobody had to experience. Sadly 800,000 in 2023 alone will have to experience the searing pain of this experience first-hand.

As they were dealing with the aftershock of her husband’s death, she heard 3 words used together for the first time: Prevention, Intervention, Postvention.

The reality is that in addition to having to deal with the shock of a suicide by someone close to them, those impacted by the suicide immediately enter a high-risk group with a significantly increased likelihood of ending their own lives. Rarely discussed widely, postvention, or how we care for those bereaved by suicide, IS prevention for the next generation.

Angela’s talk will discuss the concept of postvention and how it can be successfully applied to prevent history from cruelly repeating itself.