Agenda item

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, and to consider and endorse or make recommendations to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision to adopt the 2015 – 2020 Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan.

Mr M J Angell, Mr G Cowan, Mr M Whybrow and Mrs Z Wiltshire were present for this item.

Ms J Mookherjee, Public Health Consultant, and Mr T Woodhouse, Public Health Programme Manager, were in attendance for this item.

1.            Ms Mookherjee introduced the report and strategy, which the committee had seen through its stages of development.  Ms Mookherjee, Mr Woodhouse and Mr Scott-Clark responded to comments and questions from Members, as follows:-

a)    a statistic quoted for the number of suicides in any area represented those who were resident in that area, not those who had gone there to commit suicide;

b)    cases quoted in which support services had been withdrawn from an individual were those in which the individual had been assessed as no longer requiring those services.  The importance of a case being  properly reviewed before any service was withdrawn was emphasised;

c)    it was important to consider the impact of suicide upon a family, and, in particular, upon children, and have suitable support services available for them;

d)    figures for those committing suicide listed in the report should be shown as a rate per 100,000, not per 1,000.

e)    those industries with higher rates – eg construction, agriculture and road transport – tended to employ larger numbers of men, who often spent long periods of time away from their families and home support networks.  The high rate among construction workers had only recently been identified, and work would be undertaken to find the best ways of engaging with this group to address issues, eg via leisure facilities and the trade bodies to which they belonged;

f)     once the strategy had been launched, the Public Health team would work with partners to identify and engage with those most at risk of suicide, and progress reports on the implementation of the strategy would be made to this committee.  It was known that only 20% of those who take their own life had contact with  secondary mental health care providers in the tewlve months prior to their death, highlighting the need for multi-agency partnerships and population-wide approaches;

g)    Kent was proud to have more mental health networking projects than any other county, known as ‘Shed’ projects, and these were a large and important part of the strategy.  They had previously been targeted at men but most now included women.  Although public health funding had not yet been confirmed for 2016 onwards, Shed projects were not expensive to run, and some were not financed by the County Council. It was suggested that, if an area did not have a Shed project, local County Councillors could perhaps support the establishment of one by using their community grant money;

h)   the report contained both actual numbers of deaths by area and rates per 100,000. To compare suicide levels across clinical commissioning group areas, it would be necessary to examine the  rates of deaths, as comparisons using actual numbers would be compromised by the different population sizes within clinical commissioning groups; and

i)      social isolation and loneliness both had an impact on the suicide rate. The Shed projects could help in tackling isolation.

2.                  The Cabinet Member, Mr Gibbens, thanked Members for their comments and a constructive debate. He undertook to take on board the comments made and take them forward with officers. Recent media coverage of suicide had emphasised the importance of good cross-working with partners such as The Samaritans and Shed projects. He encourages Members to visit their local Shed project and requested that a report on Sheds be added to the committee’s next agenda.

3.                  RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, to approve the adoption of the 2015-2020 Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan, taking account of comments made by the committee, be endorsed.