The prevention of suicide in inpatient mental health settings has long been a focus for clinicians and managers.

Understanding what can be done in community, emergency and general practice settings to reduce the number of suicides has presented more of a challenge.

This briefing introduces the National Patient Safety Agency’s (NPSA) new suicide prevention toolkits for community, emergency and general practice staff, launched in December 2011, and outlines their benefits for providers, illustrated by the experience of some pilot sites.

Key points from the briefing include:

• Over 4,000 suicides occur in the UK each year; 74 per cent of suicide victims are not known to mental health services
• Around 200,000 cases of self-harm (an indicator of suicide risk) are seen by hospital services each year
• Community, emergency and general practice staff have an important role in identifying and caring for people at risk of suicide
• New toolkits can help community and emergency services and general practices understand what can be done to prevent suicide

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 through community and emergency healthcare (PDF). NHS Confederation Mental Health Network, 5 Dec 2011.

Preventing suicide toolkits are available on the NHS Confederation website for the following areas:

• Ambulance services (PDF)
• Community mental health services (PDF)
• General practice (PDF)
• Emergency departments (PDF)