Westminster joins forces with Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide to host World Suicide Prevention Day conference

The conference was held on 10 September to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day 2025, which encourages people to come together to think about how to support people in crisis and work together to prevent suicides. Over 100 attendees joined the conference, from directors of public health to senior executives of security firms and representatives from the Bank of England, Network Rail and HSBC.  

Attendees were welcomed with an opening address from Ian Dyson CBE, Chair of the Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide, before discussions began on the afternoon’s first theme, Actions That Have Made a Difference. This featured talks from Dr Nina Smyth, Deputy Leader of Westminster’s Psychophysiology and Stress Research Group (PSRG) and Co-Lead for the Health Innovation and Wellbeing Community, Alistair Sunderland, Client Relationship Director at CIS Security, Claire Giraud, Co-Founder of Bridge Watch, and Dr Leandro Garcia from Queen’s University Belfast and the Evaluation of Suicide Prevention Services team.  

This was followed by a panel discussion hosted by Dyson, featuring representatives from event sponsors Securigroup, MS Webb, City Group Security, CIS Security, alongside Dr Smyth, Giraud and Dr Garcia.  

The second half of the conference focused on Helping People in Distress, which began with a talk from Westminster’s Dr Mackenzie on responding to people in distress. David Savage from R;pple Suicide Prevention then spoke about helping people make a better choice, before Joe Zielinski from Zinc Systems discussed how technology can play a part in preventing suicide. All three speakers then joined Dyson for a panel discussion, before the day’s final talk was delivered by Adam Day from Menti Survey.  

Dyson delivered a closing address before attendees joined a networking session to reflect upon the day.

About the conference Dr Mackenzie said: “Suicide touches the lives of many different people from across the world, so it’s a great honour to have organised and hosted this event at Westminster. I was delighted to see that we were joined by over one hundred attendees despite all the challenges with transport on the day. People really went the extra mile to make it to the event, and this demonstrates how much people care about this issue. “  

Dr Smyth said: “The day reflected the huge amount of work the consortium is doing for suicide prevention and it an honour for the WCPS to collaborate and host this event. As an attendee on the day, I was really impressed by the commitment of the security industry to improve working conditions to support overall wellbeing.”

Amanda McCloskey, Sales and Marketing Director at conference sponsors CIS Security, said: “I feel truly privileged to have taken part in the World Suicide Prevention Day conference hosted by the University of Westminster, where I joined as a panellist to share my insights and be part of such important conversations around prevention and support. Being surrounded by so many passionate and knowledgeable speakers was both inspiring and humbling, and I came away with a deeper understanding and renewed determination to keep raising awareness and creating hope through action. At CIS, as members of the Consortium for the Prevention of Suicide, we’re committed to supporting our colleagues, sharing resources, and standing together in this vital work.”

The conference contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3: Good Health and Wellbeing and 17: Partnerships for the Goals. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.  

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