Experts are forecasting that there will be a mental health crisis this year as a result of Covid 19, and the challenges it has brought for many.

‘There is always hope’ forms part of the industry’s efforts to reduce suicides across the network. To date, Network Rail, train operating companies and the British Transport Police have taken continuous measures to prevent such incidents including training staff and running campaigns like ‘Small Talk Saves Lives’, which calls on people to look out for one another and intervene safely if they see someone who might ned help.

The campaign provides a new approach developed with input from suicide prevention and mental health experts. In this campaign vulnerable people are proactively targeted and signposted to support services much earlier on in their mental health journey, before they consider ending their life on the railway. A key aim for the campaign is to re-frame the association of the railway as a place to take your life. 

By highlighting the railway as a positive and uplifting place where connections are made, and journeys begin the campaign film aims to subtly deter those in crisis from taking their life on the railway. It portrays a young man looking distressed and withdrawn, who finds himself surrounded by positive moments of hope as he moves through a railway station.

At the end, the video shows him connecting and striking up a conversation with a fellow passenger as they embark on their journey. By showing these moments of care and connection the film aims to show that no matter how desperate you may feel, there are people around you who care and that there is always hope.