Spokz People c.i.c. Suicide Policy

What are suicidal thoughts? Thinking about suicide means you are thinking of no longer living. We recognise that for many disabled people, the thought of suicide can result from living in very challenging situations, difficult emotions, trauma, declining health or chronic physical pain. It is completely normal and OK for anyone to have these thoughts from time to time: it may give hope that there is a way out of your situation when you can no longer manage it. This is called passive suicidal thoughts and you may have thoughts like “I just want the pain to stop” or “I wish I could just disappear”.

For others there are ongoing thoughts or active plans to end their lives: this is called active suicidal thoughts. You may have thoughts like “I have made a plan..” or “I am ending or planning on ending my life by doing…” There are very specific details here of times, locations or methods. It may also include preparations such as writing suicide letters, sorting wills or purchasing materials to enable suicide.

What will Spokz People do if I disclose suicidal thoughts?

Our first priority will always be to try and talk to you first, offer support and possible signposting. If you disclose suicidal thoughts, or select anything other than ‘not at all’ on our wellbeing questionnaire, we will in the first instance just touch base with you and offer our support and see if we can provide you with or signpost you to additional resources. We also have several sessions a year where we offer a safe space to discuss suicidal thoughts. Most of the time, whatever you tell us stays between us (confidential).  We can help you put together a safety plan, which we recommend you share with your GP. The safety plan can include helplines such as the Samaritans, your nearest A&E as well as people who can be contacted in an emergency. It can also include toolkits of people, things, activities etc. that can help you manage suicidal thoughts.

However, you should know, that legally, if a member discloses that they are actively planning suicide, we, as a service, have to break confidentiality and make contact with a third party. 

As an online organisation, we are limited by the personal and identifying information you have disclosed during registration or thereafter in conversations, both on our forums and verbally in live events (e.g., your place of work or study). Practically, the only people we can contact are the police through 999. They can, we believe only with a court order, access your computer IP address (unless you use a VPN) and the location of your phone. They can access your IP address and home address through us because you pay for a membership through a card registered to your address.

What relevant information does Spokz People hold? Knowing that you can decide what information you choose to share with us is important. Even if you have told us this information, it does not mean we will automatically tell someone else. Generally, the personal information we have comes from your registration form:

• Your name
• Your date of birth
• Your phone number
• Your email
• We use Stripe as our payment gateway and they hold your address as this is connected to your payment card. Sometimes this is a partial address, other times your whole address including postcode.

Conclusion – We always want to help you explore your feelings about your situation and to help you make the decisions that are right for you. If we need to break confidentiality, we will always endeavour to inform you of this first and try to reach a mutual agreement about a way forward.

Where can I get support? Please visit our emergency support section for links to resources, help lines and ideas on how to manage suicidal thoughts. Suicide Policy Last updated: March 2025

Contact Us

To contact us, please email info@spokzpeople.org.uk