If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or be in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
When Jo Lambert first learned a loved one was feeling suicidal, she says she was terrified. “I was so panicked by the grief I might experience if my loved one died that it prevented me from giving my loved one what I needed [to],” she recalls. Over time she learned to set aside her own fear in the moment and focus entirely on the person in crisis. “As soon as I detached myself from the outcome, I made this about the person in the crisis — fully. That was when I got the hang of it.”
Lambert turned her experience into a promise to teach others what helped her. In 2023 she joined five others with lived experience of suicidality to create a short film commissioned by a U.K. suicide prevention program. The film, titled Hold the Hope, is narrated by a poem Lambert wrote. Recited in the film by spoken-word artist George the Poet, the poem asks for emotional safety and compassionate presence from those supporting someone in crisis.
Lines from the poem — “Can you be strong enough / Stay by my side for long enough” — sketch a clear request: connect, reflect and validate. The poem urges supporters to “hold this space,” accept torment without alarm, and remain steady and calm when someone mentions thoughts of suicide. The film shows people in everyday settings, their faces and silence punctuated by the poem’s words, reminding viewers that the right response from others can create a path to hope.
Lambert now works for a regional NHS mental health trust coordinating suicide prevention training. The South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust has incorporated the film into its awareness sessions. Lambert and psychiatric nurse Justine Trippier often screen the film during training. Trippier says hearing directly from people with lived experience helps battle stigma and builds compassion: “I believe if we hear from the people directly, then that can change attitudes and create compassion in people.” The film’s emotional rawness also prompts participants to share their own stories — sometimes as carers of someone suicidal, sometimes as clinicians who have lost a patient.
This year Lambert collaborated with composer Joe Waymouth to set her poem to music. She recruited volunteer singers — students, NHS staff including Trippier, and people with lived experience — and recorded the song in a church. The choir setting, says psychologist Ursula Whiteside of Now Matters Now, gives the song a sense of recognition and respect for the painful reality of suicidal thoughts. Whiteside, who has both professional and personal experience with suicidality, says the song is powerful because it tells listeners plainly what would help: “This is what I want you to do.”
Lambert hopes the song and film can reach broader audiences through the arts. The trust’s strategy emphasizes making suicide prevention “everyone’s business,” and Lambert sees arts-based work as a way to put the issue into the mainstream. She has paired the song with a freestyle dance on YouTube and plans a hip-hop version, while stressing that the film and song are complements, not substitutes, for formal training. “It needs to be made clear this is not a substitute for statutory training,” she says. “We’re just saying this is what helped a group of people who’ve survived.”
Lambert describes the caregiving work as exhausting and sometimes prolonged. She recalls sitting with a loved one for up to 16 hours until the immediate crisis passed. When exhaustion hit, she would imagine keeping hold of someone pulling them back up until they could climb themselves. “I’m going to hold the hope for you until you can do it,” she would tell them.
Research and practice increasingly underline the value of lived experience in suicide prevention. Hearing from people who have survived suicidality and found help can reduce stigma and encourage others to seek support. As the 988 Lifeline notes, for every person who dies by suicide, many more seriously consider it and do not go on to attempt. Lambert’s film and song aim to show that, with compassionate presence and the right support, people can and do choose life.