Two new Senior Responsible Officers have been appointed for West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership’s Suicide Prevention Programme – with each pledging to harness their passion for the subject to help bring down the suicide rate in West Yorkshire.
Gary Jevon, chief executive of Healthwatch Wakefield, and Becky Elliott, public mental health manager at Kirklees Council, have been appointed as Senior Responsible Officers (SROs) for suicide prevention following a recruitment drive to find more leaders to champion the programme’s work and play a vital role in its collective movement to make suicide prevention everyone’s business. 
The appointments bring the current total of SROs for the programme to four – with the pair now joining Darryl Thompson, chief nurse and director of quality and professions at South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Nichola Sanderson, deputy director of nursing at Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
Kim Shutler, CEO of The Cellar Trust in Bradford, recently stepped down as an SRO on the programme to take up a new position on the NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
Gary, (pictured above, right) who is also a member of the Wakefield Health and Wellbeing Board, Wakefield’s Connecting Care Executive and the Safeguarding Adults Board, said: “The reduction and prevention of suicide in this district has long been something I am passionate about,” adding: “I am desperate to see vast reductions in suicide rates across the county and will work tirelessly to have a positive impact on this work.”
Becky Elliott (pictured below, right) has led on suicide prevention at Kirklees Council since 2015, taking a more strategic position since moving into her public health manager role, and cited a “passion for reducing suicide” driven not only by her job but also being bereaved by suicide herself.
She said she is keen to represent the public health voice in suicide prevention work.
“Suicide is a major inequality issue, with many risk factors for someone taking their own life centred in communities, including where they live and work. 
“Income, debt, poor housing and unemployment as well as other socio-economic factors all play a significant role in suicide risk,” she said.
Suicide is West Yorkshire’s biggest killer of men under 50 and biggest killer of young people.
West Yorkshire also has higher rates of suicide than England as a whole, for men and women.
Earlier this year, WY HCP’s Suicide Prevention Programme launched a five-year strategy, listing a number of key themes and risk-factors where work will be focused in a bid to reduce the suicide rate in West Yorkshire.
Jessica Parker, WY HCP’s programme manager for suicide prevention, said: “I’m thrilled to have Gary and Becky on board as our new joint SROs.
“They both bring a wealth of experience and passion to the roles, particularly in the voluntary sector and public health, respectively.
“Together with our current SROs, we aim to reflect the wide-ranging remit of suicide prevention work and I look forward to working together in leading and championing the vital work of our programme in moving towards our long-term vision for zero suicides in West Yorkshire.”