Cllr John Spence Essex County Council
Talking about suicides, this is on the leader and cabinet members blog.
Link is here: One suicide is one too many – Essex County Council Leader and Cabinet’s Blog
One suicide is one too many
Suicide might feel like an intimidating topic to talk about, but it is an important one for that reason. Sadly, a life is lost through suicide every two hours in the UK and suicidal thoughts affect thousands of adults and children every single day. This will rightly shock you, as it did me – but it only serves to emphasise why it is so important that I talk about it.
I absolutely agree we need to talk about it, given that those involved with Essex County Council tend to ignore me, I shall do this publicly.
My child attempted suicide in summer 2020 as a direct result of Essex County Council. My child at that time was on a child in need plan.
Given that Essex County Council did not want to even discuss what had caused my child to attempt to take their own life, my child had to deal with two social workers just stand there while my child told them the exact reasons why they tried to kill themselves.
The social workers were forced by ECC to just stand there, they could say nothing to my child regarding what my child was saying despite my child having been very vocal about the abuse they had suffered, the trauma they had suffered, and the mental health problems and suicidal thoughts they had been left with.
The child in need plan was ended extremely shortly afterwards, my belief is it was as a direct result of my childs suicide attempt, the social workers could not help my child as they should as they were not even allowed to accept that what my child was saying they had experienced had happened.
I am very clear that one suicide is too many. However, achieving our target of zero suicides in Essex cannot be done by one organisation alone. It is vital that we and our partners continue to take action together, as accountable organisations in Essex.
Essex County Council an accountable organisation?
An organisation that ignored every single thing that my child said regarding their suicide attempt. The organisation that was fine with my child, and in my child’s own words, ‘being tortured’
An organisation that was fine with a very vulnerable autistic child blockading themselves in their bedroom and self harming because their abuser was outside the door?
What I think that John Spence means is that one suicide is too many unless it’s the suicide of a child who has had so many people refuse to listen to their voice that they felt it was their only option. That kind of suicide is absolutely fine and Essex County Council have no problem with that.
There are many reasons why people believe suicide is their only option and the facts and figures are a stark wake up call for us all. While having conversations around suicide are vital, we must also look at how and where we can intervene before someone even gets to the stage where they might be considering it. It is important that we ensure the right mental health and wellbeing support is in place and as an organisation, we place great emphasis on services which provide mental health support early on, before someone reaches crisis point.
So refusing my child’s request for medical treatment, mental health treatment, and then emotionally abusing my child until they broke is not a part of what they publish they do? Interesting.
Throughout everything my child was refused help, absolutely nobody listened to them, my child pleaded to the point of tears, nobody at Essex County Council cared about what my child wanted. My child may have autism, they may have other problems, but they knew what they needed, and they were told quite clearly and directly that they needed none of it.
Nobody listened to my child, everyone was too busy covering up what had gone wrong, so when the effects really started to show, they couldn’t have cared less, which led to my child’s suicide attempt.
You have a suicidal child who tells people, and nobody at Essex County Council listened because it was not in the interests of Essex County Council to do so.
Essex County Council caused my child to attempt suicide, I have evidence to back that up, it’s not just a statement, it’s the truth. Absolutely nobody cared, they didn’t care about trying to do anything to prevent it happening again, there was just a total lack of anyone putting my child’s wellbeing and safety above anything else.
Whatever someone may be going through, suicide is not the only option and there is help available across Essex. We remain as committed as ever to working with partners to reduce the stigma around talking about suicide and to ensuring that people get the support they need, when and where they need it.
No, Cllr John Spence, you are not committed to working with anyone to ensure that people get the support they need, when and where they need it.
My child’s suicide attempt is Essex County Council’s dirty little secret, something they have covered up, it has not even been investigated, either the suicide attempt while my child was on a child in need plan, or the incidents that led up to the suicide attempt.
My child’s suicide attempt is a huge driving force behind what I am doing with this blog, and why I will not be stopping.
My child’s voice should be evident throughout all notes held by Essex County Council, they dismissed my child’s voice, and then I have to read utter rubbish from the cabinet member for health stating that one suicide is too much.
Essex has a suicide problem, every single person lost to suicide is a person too many. Every single one of those losses is tragic.
Words are easy, actions are hard, change is even harder, and accountability is something that is said by many at Essex County Council but doesn’t actually exist.
Everything stated in the blog post written by Cllr John Spence is not a true reflection of how Essex County Council feel and act when it comes to anything to do with suicides, it’s the complete opposite.
Essex County Council do not care at all that my child attempted suicide, despite many many warnings by my child, and myself speaking on behalf of my child, they acted towards my child as if my child was nothing.
They were warned time and time again that my child would end up attempting suicide, they couldn’t care less.
Then when it happened, they didn’t, and still haven’t, even acknowledged it.
What Cllr John Spence has written in that blog post is not true, Essex County Council does not care about suicide, whether it’s adults or children. I speak from experience.
I was incredibly angry reading that blog post, that a member of the cabinet at Essex County Council has the audacity to pretend that they are doing all they can to prevent suicides, when they stood by, let my child attempt suicide without doing anything to prevent that, and then afterwards continued to stand by and just shrug their shoulders is insulting.
I think I probably will send this to him, just because i’m so angry at his words being so at odds with my child’s lived experience.
I will just make it clear that I will not accept any response, i’ve heard every single excuse in the book as to why they haven’t investigated, and it’s all to protect themselves because a child could have died and it’s better to cover that up then to actually help that child.
Edited to add – I did end up emailing him, I was, and still am, so angry regarding his blog post, my post is here:
More on Essex County Council’s response regarding my child’s suicide attempt:
Link to the blog post containing the text messages when Heidi Hibbett was emotionally abusing my child who later went on to attempt suicide. I fully understand that Cllr John Spence will not be able to access the text messages as they are a screenshot, but I figure if he did even bother to read the email I sent him, which is unlikely, then he’s hardly likely to come back and read this post again:
Heidi Hibbett, Essex County Council Social Worker. – False Sexual Abuse Allegations (wordpress.com)
Edited again to add that I will be transcribing the text messages, above all else i’d like this blog to be accessible to as many as possible.
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