The Foyle Forum on Suicide is an inter- agency, inter disciplinary forum established in 1997. At that time statistics were showing a sharp rise in the number of suicides among young people in the Derry area. The Forum got together to examine some of the biggest problems facing young people in today’s society and to address these identified risk factors in a bid to help prevent suicide and attempt suicide among our youth.

After looking at a variety of models the Forum decided to look at the possibility of developing an arts-based approach to the strategy. The Forum approached the Artemis Project, a multi-disciplinary creative arts project, part of the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry to explore the possibility of setting up a joint project around the issue. The Artemis Team has been developing arts in education programmes for young people aged 6-26 years since 1998 and has received many plaudits for its work. Many of the young people included in the programmes are considered to be ‘at risk’ or have experienced social, emotional or behavioural problems. The Foyle Forum on Suicide Prevention felt that this arts-based approach should be adopted as a pilot project focused on a specific target group within the 13-15 year age band. By targeting this slightly younger age group the Forum felt that it could go some way to identifying the major crisis issues for teenagers and identify effective coping strategies before self-harm or suicide would be considered a solution. The Under Pressure project was born. The project had three phases. Phase 1 – intensive classroom based activities based on relevant problem issues as identified by the class. Phase 2 – an after school programme involving 28 self-nominated young people working with professionals to develop a touring drama production dealing with teen related issues. Phase 3 – a post-project resource pack for teachers and youth leaders with advice and work plans on how to use the arts in dealing with these identified youth issues.

The project was the first of its kind in the Derry area and was designed to help tackle the problem of self-harm and suicide among young people. The aim of the project was to use the creative arts to explore and develop the necessary coping skills required by young people to deal with personal trauma, lack of self–esteem, and personal problems. The issues were to be confronted in a sensitive and comprehensive manner in the context of a personal development and social awareness project.