Agenda item

To receive a report from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Commissioning and Public Health and the Director of Public Health, setting out recent suicide prevention developments and highlighting £667,978 of new funding which has been secured for suicide prevention work across the Kent and Medway STP area in 2018/19.  The committee is asked to note the recent progress and make comments and suggestions to strengthen future delivery.

Mr T Woodhouse, Suicide Prevention Specialist, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Mr Woodhouse introduced the report and received the committee’s thanks for the work he and his team had put into developing the excellent suicide prevention strategy and the ‘Release the Pressure’ campaign work.  He then responded to comments and questions from the committee, including the following:-

a)       asked about police involvement and the justice system in terms of suicide awareness, Mr Woodhouse reassured the committee that services were very aware of the suicide risk of those in custody and confirmed that they would have access to mental health support. The police were looking at how to increase awareness through their staff training programmes;

b)  concern was expressed that success in preventing suicide was difficult to identify and measure;

c)   the need for quick access to qualified therapists was emphasised. Mr Woodhouse agreed that this was an important part of the service and explained that trained counsellors were available via helpline services, with callers being signposted to them.  This was more than the Samaritans were permitted to do via their helpline. He undertook to find out what work was being done on workforce development in relation to therapists, their caseloads and waiting lists and advise Members outside the meeting;

d)  concern was expressed about the difficulty of reaching men, who were most at risk from suicide but who were still traditionally not encouraged to talk about their feelings or seek help for mental health worries. Mr Woodhouse explained that the aim was to seek to raise awareness of non-traditional ways for men to talk about their mental health, for example by using online apps or webchats which could be accessed discreetly without having a conversation which could be overheard. Kent’s ‘Release the Pressure’ campaign, aimed at men, had been taken up by the City of London Corporation, and posters displayed at London stations, so they would be seen by thousands of daily commuters as well as London residents. Previous campaign work had involved football clubs.  Pubs would also be a place where men traditionally could go to unwind but the increase of drinking at home had led to many pubs closing and this networking opportunity being lost;

e)   several speakers related personal examples of people who had committed suicide. From these experiences, some Members had become involved in various mental health and suicide prevention work;

f)    the Suicide Prevention Steering Group was liaising with highways colleagues to address concerns about people using bridges and other structure as points from which to jump. Mr Woodhouse said arrangements were being made to display Samaritans contact details prominently at points which were known to be popular with those seeking to take their own life, for example, the Dartford Crossing. He added that Network Rail staff were also trained to identify and offer help to people loitering on platforms who may be intending to jump onto tracks;   

g)   people working in some occupations, for example, farming and construction, were known to be particularly at risk of suicide.  Another group was train drivers and tube drivers as they were sometimes involved in incidents of people committing suicide on railway lines. Mr Woodhouse advised that it was notoriously difficult to access employees in the construction industry as many firms were small.  However, some contact could be made via trade associations, of which most were members. The NFU would offer a means of contacting farmers, and Mr Woodhouse undertook to find out what work was being done by the NFU in this field;  

h)   innovation funding given by the Government to support suicide prevention work could be used to try to identify and reach small local projects. Mr Woodhouse emphasised that it was important to keep trying all sorts of projects, even very small ones, to see what was most effective;

i)    asked if encouraging boys via school projects to express their feelings could start to address the traditional teaching that ‘boys don’t cry’, Mr Woodhouse explained that work with CAMHS aimed to increase young people’s emotional resilience. It was good that mental health was being spoken about by celebrities and sports personalities as this would help to reduce stigma among young people around talking about mental health. Feedback from callers to the helpline had shown that advice given was having a positive effect;

j)    a major contributor to suicidal feelings was loneliness; having no-one to talk to, or talking and having no-one to listen. Physical pain was easier than mental health problems to identify and treat.  Mr Woodhouse added that training in identifying and tackling mental health problems would make identification easier. The belief that asking someone about their suicidal thoughts would cause them to act on them was a myth; starting to talk about issues would always be a good start to dealing with them;  

k)   although many of those committing suicide were reported to have had no contact with secondary mental health services, many of them would have had contact with the health service. A good GP should be able to identify that a patient presenting at a surgery to talk about a physical ailment really wanted to talk about thoughts of suicide and could lead the conversation that way. Mr Woodhouse advised that statistics sought to identify age and geographical spread of cases of suicide;

l)    the loss of much public open space in recent years had reduced opportunities for people to enjoy time outside to kick a ball or take a healthy walk. The perception of having space was as important as the space itself. Mr Woodhouse agreed that access to the environment was crucial to wellbeing.  It was suggested that an item on open space and what public health professionals could do to influence planning and development issues be included on a future agenda; 

m) concern was expressed that access to suicide prevention training was not equitable across the county. Mr Woodhouse explained that such training had been oversubscribed in every district; and

n)  the Chairman referred to media coverage in 2002 of a link identified between the use of a prescribed anti-depressant drug and an increase in suicides. Mr Woodhouse explained that, following a suicide, a Coroner’s inquiry would include an investigation of the drugs being taken by the victim. He undertook to look into what data could be drawn from this to help with public health work. Mr Scott-Clark added that Public Health England was working on identifying patients diagnosed with life-changing and life-limiting conditions such as cancer and the increase in risk of them committing suicide to avoid prolonged suffering.

2.         It was RESOLVED that recent progress on suicide prevention work be noted and welcomed, and Members’ comments on this work, set out above, be used to strengthen future service delivery.