High praise for suicide prevention scheme - despite increase in Hampshire suicides

A multi-agency suicide prevention strategy, led by Hampshire County Council, was put in place between 2018 and 2021, but practices from this have been continued.

In that time, the number of suicides registered in Hampshire has increased, from 8.4 per 100,000 people in 2014-2016 to 8.6 per 100,000 people in 2018-2020.

Delays to inquests due to the Covid-19 pandemic has blurred the picture since then, but the county council claims that early indications from real-time surveillance data in Hampshire do not show an increase during the national lockdowns.

At a health and wellbeing board meeting today hosted by Hampshire County Council, the success of this strategy was praised by health bosses.

Sandra O'Hagan, chairwoman of the suicide prevention multi-agency forum, said: 'Some amazing progress has been made, but at the same time this is an important area of work and we cannot be complacent.

'It's very much about embedding this into the work of every partner organisation, as well as into the mental health system itself.

'We are skirting below the national average for suicide rates.'

Simon Bryant, director of public health, added: 'This is a really complicated area and not an easy thing to tackle, so I am very proud of this work.

'Suicide prevention needs to be embedded into everyone’s business, especially considering the ongoing impact of the pandemic, especially in terms of mental health and wellbeing.'

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As of this month, suicide prevention funding from NHS England will come to an end, meaning that funding will have to come from internal sponsorship.

Going forward, the plan is to embed suicide prevention into Hampshire's wider mental health system.

Ron Shields, chief executive of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust, spoke in support of this idea.

He said: 'The tragedy of suicides cannot be understated.

'As well as the individual, it affects their friends, their family and others who knew them.

'The way in which we're approaching this is to be commended.'

Currently there are around 30 partners in the multi-agency scheme, ranging from councils, charities, probation services and even representatives from British Transport Police and Network Rail.

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