⚠ Content Warning: This poem contains references to suicide, suicidal thoughts, racism, exclusion, discrimination and mental health struggles.
Ken's Poem: Feeling Unheard
In this powerful poem, Ken shares reflections on his experiences of mental health, suicidality, racism and what it means to feel unseen within systems and society. Drawing on his Jamaican heritage and lived experience, the poem explores the emotional impact of feeling unheard, overlooked and undervalued, while highlighting the importance of dignity, belonging and culturally responsive support.
Ken's poem reflects on the barriers that many people from racialised communities face when seeking help, the weight of carrying distress in silence, and the need for services, communities and decision-makers to listen to and learn from lived experience. Through his words, he challenges stigma and calls for greater understanding, compassion and action.
This poem forms part of Building the Space: Amplifying Racialised Voices in Suicide Prevention, a year-long campaign focused on ensuring that racialised voices are heard, valued and included in conversations about suicide prevention, mental health and bereavement support.
About the Campaign
Building the Space: Amplifying Racialised Voices in Suicide Prevention is a campaign led by lived experience, created to centre the voices of people from racialised communities whose experiences are too often missing from suicide prevention policy, practice and research.
The campaign is collecting stories, creative works, reflections and evidence from people with lived experience of suicidality, suicide bereavement and mental health challenges. Through these stories, we aim to build understanding, challenge inequalities and influence positive change across services, communities and systems.
Prevention without us, fails us.
Find Out More
Campaign page: https://www.peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/building-the-space
Campaign launch blog: https://www.peoplesvoicemedia.co.uk/blog/on-amplifying-racialised-voices-in-suicide-prevention-and-why-this-time-i-couldnt-stay-quiet
NSUN blog: https://www.nsun.org.uk/news/is-there-space-for-us-racialised-voices-in-suicide-prevention
Campaign film: https://youtu.be/8l2t0xQe0mM
If you have a story, poem, reflection or experience you would like to share as part of the campaign, we would love to hear from you.
"A voice does not become less important because it has been ignored. It becomes more important to hear."
