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Award nomination for mental health star

22/01/2018

A pioneering nursing lecturer from the University of Wolverhampton who is transforming approaches to mental health and suicide has been shortlisted for a top award.

Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Clare Dickens has reached the finals of the Thrive Mental Health Commission Awards.

The awards, launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority, aim to recognise the region’s mental health stars.

Clare has pioneered an award-winning approach to suicide and self-harm prevention, Three Minutes to Save a Life. The approach has been delivered to more than 900 University of Wolverhampton staff members, students, police officers, healthcare workers and is being rolled out to other organisations such as schools and prisons. 

A graduate of the University, Clare was also a finalist in the Nursing Times Nurse of the Year awards last year and the Three Minutes to Save a Life programme won the Outstanding Support for Students award at the Times Higher Education Awards 2016.

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Clare, who lives in Wolverhampton, said: “I am delighted to be able to further highlight the bravery and innovation of the University of Wolverhampton for allowing my vision for ‘Three minutes to Save a Life’ to come to fruition. Our work on the programme started in 2014 and is now embedded at the University, creating a beacon for best practice for other higher education institutions.

“What I am most proud of is that we have pushed out in to the community, which highlights the innovation and creativity of an approach which is underpinned by the philosophy that considers ‘zero suicide’ to be the only conceivable aim, but doesn’t by default endorse further attempts to identify high risk groups nor the adoption of coercive measures in order to achieve this - any one of us can be affected by distress and deteriorating mental health. We started from this baseline hence our principle of safety plans for all.”

The Thrive Mental Health Commission Awards aim to celebrate the ground breaking work being done across the region to improve mental health and wellbeing.

A Mental Health Star award will be awarded to one person from each local area in the WMCA, with a special Mental Health Superstar award for the Mental Health Star award winner who has truly gone above and beyond to improve mental health and wellbeing in the West Midlands.

The awards ceremony will take place on 31 January 2018 at The Hawthorns (West Bromwich Albion Football Club).

For more information about nursing courses at the University of Wolverhampton, visit: www.wlv.ac.uk/nursing

For further details about the Thrive Mental Health Commission Awards, visit: https://www.wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/mental-health-commission/thrive-mental-health-commission-awards/

Further information

For more information please contact the Media Relations Office on 01902 32 2736 or 01902 518647.

Date Issued: Tuesday, 23 January 2018

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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