James’ Place - Preventing Suicide. Providing Hope.

James’ Place is a national charity offering free, life-saving treatment to suicidal men in London, the North East and the North West. The organisation provides a safe, friendly, therapeutic environment in which men are cared for and respected. Their mission is to help men (and those identifying as male) aged 18+ who are in crisis, by providing quick access to short and focused one-to-one professional therapy which will help them to understand and recover from a suicidal crisis.

Support for James’ Place

In 2023 David Riddell Memorial CIO provided essential funding to support James' Place, enabling them to open their third clinical centre in Newcastle six months ahead of schedule and treat more men as a result.

In 2025 David Riddell Memorial CIO also committed to a further grant towards the opening of James' Place fourth centre in Birmingham. The centre is anticipated to open to referrals in early 2026.

Impact

In its first year, the Newcastle centre supported 425 men in suicidal crisis, a figure that would not have achievable without the David Riddell Memorial CIO’s support.

James’ Place fourth centre in Birmingham, secured with David Riddell Memorial CIO’s support, will have capacity to see up to an additional 400 men per year and open support access to suicidal men across the Midlands.

Collaboration between James’ Place and the David Riddell Memorial CIO has been hugely successful, leading to hundreds of men receiving the free and life-saving support they need.

Feedback from Clients

• ‘As soon as I walked in that building I felt safe. It makes me feel quite emotional remembering how I felt. It was very homely, very comfortable, not clinical at all. Just a warm, beautiful, safe place – a cocoon of safety.’

• ‘To this day I find it remarkable this service remains free and able to operate at the speed it does to help people like me. I could not recommend James’ Place enough to anyone who may be suffering.’

• ‘I'll be forever grateful to them, without the team at James’ Place I wouldn’t be here today. My parents would have lost their son and my two sons their Dad.’

Awards and Recognition

James’ Place is regularly and independently evaluated by Liverpool John Moores University. These evaluations have recognised that men using James’ Place service experience a clinically significant reduction in feelings of distress.

In 2024, James’ Place won two awards at The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) Health & Wellbeing Awards:

• The Mental Health and Wellbeing Award

• The Public Health Minister’s Award

This was in recognition of the organisation’s innovation, strong academic feel, focus on prevention and inclusion, regional spread and potential for scale.

For more information about the awards, visit the RSPH website.