The Government have launched their new strategy for reducing the suicide rate and supporting people who are bereaved by suicide.
Care Services Minister Norman Lamb will highlight the existing call for research proposals when he launches the strategy today.
The strategy has 6 key areas for action:
- A better understanding of why people take their own life and how it can be prevented – supported by new suicide prevention research funding
- Working with the media, and with the internet industry through members of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS) to help parents ensure their children are not accessing harmful suicide-related websites, and to increase the availability and take-up of effective parental controls to reduce access to harmful websites
- Reducing opportunities for suicide, by making sure prisons and mental health facilities keep people safer – for example by redesigning buildings to take away ligature – and by safer prescribing of potentially lethal drugs
- Better support for high-risk groups – such as those with mental health problems and people who self-harm – by making sure the health service effectively manages the mental health aspects as well as any physical injuries when people who have self-harmed present themselves
- Improving services for groups like children and young people or ensuring the mental health needs of those with long-term conditions are being met through the Government’s mental health strategy
- Providing better information and support to those bereaved or affected by suicide – making sure families are included in the recovery and treatment of a patient and giving support to families affected by suicide
Chair of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group, Professor Louis Appleby said:
Suicide does not have one cause – many factors combine to produce an individual tragedy. Prevention too must be broad – communities, families and front-line services all have a vital role.
The new strategy will renew the drive to lower the suicide rate in England. It will highlight and support the crucial preventive work of local services, the voluntary sector, suicide researchers and many others.
If you need help
If you need help and support now and you live in the UK or the Republic of Ireland, please call the Samaritans on 116 123.
If you live elsewhere, we recommend finding a local Crisis Centre on the IASP website.
We also highly recommend that you visit the Connecting with People: Staying Safe resource.
Links
Preventing suicide in England: A cross-government outcomes strategy to save lives (PDF). HM Government, 10 Sep 2012.
Supporting documents:
