Suicide Prevention Charity now open in Chester

Suicide prevention charity The Martin Gallier Project have expanded from their base in New Ferry to open a second branch in Chester . The charity was founded by Jessica Gallier in memory of her father who died from suicide in 2017.

The charity’s mission is to prevent suicides, break down stigmas and support families across the North West. Over the last 4 and a half years 24,000 people have been supported by The Project. CEO Jessica commented :

. “We are opening our second site right here in the heart of Chester City Centre and we couldn’t be more excited to bring this service to Chester. Our primary function is to support people in a suicidal crisis, that could be someone who is considering suicide right now, someone that has attempted suicide in the past, as long as suicide is a factor and you’re over the age of 16 we can support you. We also support people bereaved by suicide and those that are supporting a loved one through a crisis. You can self refer by the website, you can be referred by a loved one as long as they have your consent, or you can be referred by a professional . You can walk in and ask for help at any time during our opening hours of 8.30 to 4.30” . The Chester office is currently open 9.30am until 4.30pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

Jessica Gallier (centre) cuts the ribbon

Head of Operations at the charity Deryn gave me a tour of the 3 storey building on St Werburgh Street, a former jewellers. The ground floor welcome area features a wall of testimonials from users of the New Ferry service which illustrate the transformative and live saving impact of the charity. “We have a team of suicide intervention workers who run off a non clinical framework based around ASIST (Applied suicide intervention skills training) The idea is to disable suicide plans, keeping a person safe and helping them figure out their reasons to stay alive. We use this to work collaboratively with the person in crisis to keep them safe.

” We covered the North West from our base in New Ferry and we saw an increase in demand from the Chester area for our service. We always planned to expand because we’re really passionate about what we do and giving people these interventions that are needed. A lot of the things we do for people outside of the Wirral is on the phone, It was a no brainer to expand to Chester.”

The charity also offers training in ASIST/ suicide, and a range of skills based workshops for individuals and groups. They also work with local schools to deliver an educational programme based around breaking the stigma of talking about suicide and to recognise the signs of someone who may be at risk of suicide.