Steve Whittle

What the latest suicide figures actually tell us By Steve Whittle, Founder of Tough To Talk The latest ONS suicide data does not show a sudden national increase. It does not show that we are solving the problem either. Rates remain stubbornly high, men remain disproportionately affected, and the burden is not shared equally.* By Steve Whittle, Founder of Tough To Talk On 13 October 2026, the Office for National Statistics released its latest suicide figures for England and Wales. The data...

Introduction from Steve Whittle We talk a lot at Tough To Talk about reaching in. About noticing when somebody has changed. About being willing to start the conversation rather than waiting for the perfect disclosure. But there is another side to that responsibility that matters just as much. The person doing the reaching in needs looking after too. Tough Talkers are not therapists. They are not responsible for fixing another person, and they should never be expected to carry somebody else’s...

By John Cregan, Qualified Humanistic Counsellor in private practice | Founder of MEN TALK TOO | Freelance PR Introduction from Steve Whittle When John sent me this piece, what struck me was that it asks a question that sits very close to the work we do at Tough To Talk, but approaches it from a slightly different direction. At Tough To Talk, we spend a lot of time looking at what happens before crisis: behaviour, silence, pressure, isolation, help-avoidance and the reasons support can exist...