How charities are tackling suicide risk

Content warning: The below article explores themes of suicide, self-harm, and other areas that some readers may find distressing. 

Global recession and the ongoing aftermath of the pandemic have had a catastrophic impact on people’s mental health. This is particularly the case among groups with a higher prevalence of suicide, including middle-aged men and pregnant women.

Since 2018 the UK’s suicide rate has not fallen and as of 2023 there were 5,000 deaths by suicide in England along each year. The rate among men is three times higher than women.

Two in five suicides are among people in their 40s and 50s, with men aged between 45 and 49 having the highest rate. Another concern is increasing rates of self-harm and suicide among young people.

To counter this the UK government in 2023 produced a new five-year National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which gives charities a big role in tackling suicide rates.

According to the government’s National Advisor on the Suicide Prevention Strategy Professor Sir Louis Appleby, the strategy stresses “the crucial role of frontline services” in preventing people taking their own lives.

Here we look in details at the strategy and how charities are helping to reduce suicide rates.

National Suicide Prevention Strategy

Among the priorities of the government’s strategy is to use latest evidence and data to identify the key groups in need of the greatest support to tackle the threat of suicide.

This includes: children and young people, middle-aged men, people with a history of self-harm, those in contact with the justice system, autistic people, pregnant women and new mothers, young people and those with experience of the mental health system.

It also aims to counter risk factors to people’s mental health including: illness, gambling, financial problems, alcohol or drug abuse, loneliness, and domestic abuse.

In total the strategy sets out more than 100 actions by government, including adding suicide and self-harm prevention into relationships, sex, and health education lessons in schools.

A national alert system to notify schools, universities, and charities of emerging risks of suicide and near real time monitoring of trends is also planned in the strategy.

The government also plans to encourage employers in largely male dominated industries to have support in place for staff including training employees in mental first aid and suicide prevention awareness.

Another major strand of the strategy includes releasing £10m to support charities, with specialist knowledge of at risk groups, to help in the fight against suicide.

Tommy’s and Sands tackling suicide among new mothers

The strategy has already got the ball rolling in deploying charity expertise to investigate factors leading to self-harm and suicide among pregnant women and new mothers.

For this work a maternity consortium led by the charities Tommy’s and Sands has been drafted in to gather the views of pregnant women and young mothers who have had, or are at risk of, suicidal thoughts or have self-harmed.

Other members of the consortium involved include National Maternity Voices, Pregnancy and Baby Charities Network, Five X More, Muslim Women’s Network UK, and LGBT Mummies.

“We know how important it is to make sure the right support is available for women and birthing people during their pregnancy journey, including as they plan for pregnancy,” said Robert Wilson, Head of Sands and Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit, which is leading the research project. “This is especially true where someone has a mental health condition which could put them at greater risk of harm.”

The charity consortium’s work is being funded through the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Health and Wellbeing Alliance, which is a partnership between the charity, health, and care sectors.

Other charities tackling suicide

The government’s allocation of £10m to help charities tackle suicide from 2023 follows on from a further £5.4m in funding that was allocated in 2022, to support more than 100 charities to improve their help given to high-risk groups.

Many are already spending their 2022 funding on developing tech solutions, including chatbots, to reach more people.

Caribbean & African Health Network is using its grant to run awareness raising campaigns to tackle taboos around suicide in Black communities as well as run virtual chat and support sessions targeting young people.

Chasing the Stigma has developed its Hub of Hope online mental health tool to signpost support to more than 22,000 people a month.

Support charity Papyrus has been allocated funding to provide support and advice services to young people around suicide prevention. The charity runs a confidential suicide prevention helpline and promotes apps to improve young people’s wellbeing. This includes Mindfulness apps including Gro Health and Actissist.

London and Liverpool based James’ Place Charity is using its funding to provide free, suicide prevention therapy to men in crisis in the Merseyside area.

Another to be allocated funding is West of England based charity Pete’s Dragons, which provides bereavement support for those impacted by suicide. This is face-to-face, by telephone or email. It also provides a resource pack tailored to people’s specific needs.