The hardest conversation is still the one we avoid

The most recent figures on suicide in England are a reminder of why silence is so costly, and why LIFI26 is putting the conversation on stage.

The numbers barely move, and that is the problem. The most recent near-real-time surveillance data for England, running to January 2026, shows the same shape that has held for decades. Around three in four suspected suicides are men. The highest rates fall among people aged 45 to 64, followed closely by those aged 25 to 44. These are not, for the most part, the people we picture when we talk about mental health crises. They are often the people least likely to talk at all.

That is the uncomfortable heart of it. We have got better, slowly, at saying the word. Campaigns, documentaries and famous faces have chipped away at the stigma. Roman Kemp, who lost a close friend and has spent years pushing young men’s mental health up the agenda, is one of the voices bringing this conversation to Leeds. And yet the figures sit stubbornly where they have long been, which suggests that awareness alone is not the same as change.

There is genuine debate about how we talk about this, not just whether we should. Responsible reporting guidelines exist for good reason, and researchers disagree about where openness helps and where it can do harm. Professor Rory O’Connor, one of the country’s leading suicide researchers and another of the panel’s voices, has spent a career mapping exactly that terrain. What almost everyone agrees on is that silence, the thing masculinity and stiff upper lips and “I’m fine” have quietly enforced for generations, is the most dangerous option of all.

That is the premise of How do we talk about suicide? at LIFI26, hosted by Amy Irons, with Roman Kemp, Donelle Lawrence, Professor Rory O’Connor, Ellie Palma Cass and Andy Airey MBE. It is a conversation about media, relationships, masculinity and the pressures that keep people quiet, and about how we might begin to talk in ways that actually help.

The statistics tell us who. The conversation is how we start to change them.

How do we talk about suicide? takes place on Wednesday 7 October, 7.30pm to 9pm, in the Courtyard Theatre at Leeds Playhouse. Tickets are on sale now.