New charity CLASP (Counselling Life Advice Suicide Prevention) is an innovative cause that seeks to prevent suicide by offering practical help while raising awareness of stress-related and mental health issues.
Kenny Johnston founded the charity after his own struggle with mental illness. Kenny experienced and witnessed racism, domestic abuse and other stressful experiences, leading to his own attempted suicide in 2010.
Keen to help others in similar situations, Kenny studied to become a CBT and Suicide Intervention Counsellor. In setting up CLASP Charity, Kenny aims to help even more people and to raise awareness about mental health.
One of the key factors of CLASP Charity is its three-digit helpline, which is due to launch later this year. The helpline will be manned by qualified nurses from the Medical Advisory service who will act as a triage, offering understanding and advice to the caller before referring them to a specialist.
The caller will then be contacted again within two days to ensure they were given the correct information and to see if there is anything else they need, for example counselling in their local area. The potential for this kind of helpline is huge as all nurses will have medical experience and will be able to offer practical advice to those in distress.
As well as the innovative helpline, CLASP Charity also aims to raise awareness and end mental health stigma with events such as ‘Walking out of the Darkness’, a charity walk taking place on July 19th. This overnight walk through London will raise both funds and awareness about stress and mental related illnesses.
Here at Memiah, mental health is an issue close to our hearts (which is why our very first directory was the Counselling Directory) so we were pleased to be able to help CLASP spread the word about their charity on our Counselling Directory website. We will also be supporting the charity by taking part in the ‘Walking out of Darkness’ charity walk to help raise funds and awareness.
To find out more about the charity and to join us in the Walk out of Darkness, please visit CLASP’s website.