Agenda item - Suicide Prevention Action Plan

RESOLVED: That the Health and Wellbeing Board approve the Suicide Prevention Strategy 2019-21.

43.1       David Brindley, Public Health Programme Manager, introduced the paper to inform the Board on the new Suicide Prevention Strategy 2019-21 which had the objective of reducing the rate of suicide in the city. The strategy was tailored to local need through evidence, national guidance and multiagency partnership with other stakeholders in the city.

43.2       Councillor O’Quinn thanked Public Health Programme Manager for his useful and great work. She stated that a wide variety of people were affected by this issue, whether it was students suffering from stress or vulnerable older people, and that it was particularly concerning to see areas where vulnerable children were affected by parents that had tried to repeatedly commit suicide from her perspective sitting on the Adoption Panel and the Fostering Panel.  She added that it was surprising to see suicide levels drop since the financial crash.

43.3       The Public Health Programme Mange stated that on there were representations from children’s services and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board on the Action Panel Steering Group to base the foundations and to bring this work forward.

43.4       Councillor Moonan thanked the Public Health Programme Manager for the report and asked whether he could expand on homelessness as a risk factor, which linked to the work of the safeguarding board’s work on homeless deaths, and for reassurance that these were being linked. She added that if they were not there was potential for this. Secondly she asked why female suicide, often mothers, was increasing in a contradiction to the national trend.

43.5       The Public Health Programme Manager responded that the Suicide Prevention Action Plan was linked in with homeless services and the CCG mental health lead who sits on the Homeless Board. There were no suicides recorded of people that were homeless at the time of suicide through the local suicide audit, however they were recognised as a vulnerable group and there was always room to explore this subject. Secondly he responder that increased female suicide was a recent national trend in the past couple of years and the cause was currently unknown, however the victims were predominantly male.

43.6       The Director of Public Health welcomed the strategy and stated that every suicide was a tragedy which effected many people in the long term. It should be highlighted that Brighton and Hove had the second highest suicide rate of all high level authorities in the country which was a poor position and meant this strategy had to be a priority for the Board and the city as a whole. He stated he would be chairing the suicide prevention boards in future and the implementation of the action plan should include key organisations of the city as absolute equal partners in the delivery and ownership of the strategy.

43.7       Councillor Wealls asked if there was any support or resource for the city’s further education (FE) colleges, which accounted for 12,000 service users, or youth services as these had not been mentioned in the action plan because the report had provided clarity for the universities. Secondly he questioned if the GPs and health professionals had the skills and resources in terms of appropriate signposting for patients as there were a broad range of interventions available. Thirdly he asked how older people were identified for intervention if they did not independently approach a GP. They were vulnerable to be forgotten he asked whether state or voluntary services stepped in, particularly if there were no family members to organise that integration in to services.

43.8       The Executive Director - Families Children & Learning responded that there was a mental health practitioner for all FE and sixth form colleges and they recognised this was a vulnerable demographic. Their key focus was self-harm, which was a broader programme for which suicide was an aspect, and part of their role was to raise awareness across the wider workforce in those institutions.

43.9       The Public Health Programme Manager responded that from the tender for an aging well service had been awarded to Impact Initiatives. They had a local partnership beneath which would help the service outcomes to reduce loneliness and social isolation which would have one phone number and a main point of contact for all those services. An expectation of this service would be to reach out and find isolated older people and there was ongoing work to tie this to the broader social care support to ensure people were aware of this service. Secondly he stated that there was a clinical lead who was a part of the suicide prevention work and that there was high levels of work towards strengthening health professional’s skills of signposting and social prescribing. Thirdly for youth services, he stated that there were strong links to youth service colleagues and commissioners.

43.10    In response to Councillor Wealls stating that those answers should be incorporated in to the strategy, the Director of Public Health agreed and stated that the action plan should be updated and be more dynamic in future. He added that in terms of General Practice, that they had been working with colleagues from other areas such as the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (SPNFT) to bid for national funding with a priority of recommissioning primary care in General Practice.

43.11    Dr David Supple stated that in terms of GPs, there was a tension in the system when multiple priorities existed, as in any system, and to an extent there was a trade-off between continuity of care and quick access to primary care. He stated that this was an issue that affected everyone and on some level and that there needed to be societal solutions.

43.12    Councillor Page thanked the Public Health Programme Manager for his report and stated that the discussion showed a complex challenge which had existed for many years and this action plan should be a priority for the City. He added there was a particular awareness push for the student population for which Brighton and Hove had a significant bulge population.

43.13    Graham Bartlett, Brighton & Hove Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB), stated that they had not seen issues of suicide detected in the realm of abuse and neglect or care and support and there were worries on whether they were asking the right questions. The SAB had been anxious about their referral pathways for safeguarding adult reviews and those deaths may not have been flagged as potential themes in the same way as the Safeguarding Children’s Board which triggered overview panels that provide a safety net to pick up issues. The SAB needed to identify those at risk in their sector whether this was implementing safeguarding adult reviews or multi agency audits.

RESOLVED: That the Health and Wellbeing Board approve the Suicide Prevention Strategy 2019-21.