media briefing male suicide prevention coalition · launch, when he was working at vp marketing at...
TRANSCRIPT
MEDIA BRIEFINGMALE SUICIDE PREVENTION COALITION
LAUNCH 12 MAY 2016
CONTENTS
1. Reporting suicide guidelines2. Media contacts for all members of the coalition3. Key links4. Coalition statement of intent5. UK suicide rates by gender6. Coalition members7. Member organisation info: stats, work, impact
◦ Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
◦ Lynx
◦ Samaritans
◦ RNLI
◦ Rail industry
◦ British Transport Police
◦ Fire & Rescue
◦ Association of Ambulance of Chief Executives
◦ Highways England
1. REPORTING SUICIDE GUIDELINES
There is substantial evidence which shows the link between media coverage of suicide and increases in ‘imitational’ suicides, when suicides are not reported on responsibly. The following brief guidance is aimed to support media in relation to this campaign. We remind you of the need for extra care when covering the topic of suicide and signpost Samaritans’ Media Guidelines for the reporting of suicide.
• The risk of media coverage influencing suicidal behaviour significantly increases if suicide methods are described in detail and if coverage is sensationalised.
• When covering suicide statistics, particularly figures relating to specific suicide methods, it is important to avoid sensationalism. To draw media attention away from methods, a safe alternative is to focus on the issues impacting on men, making them more vulnerable to suicide, rather than speaking about choice of suicide methods.
• Take care with use of language, avoid the use of terms such as ‘suicide epidemic’. • Promote positive ways of coping with problems and include the fact that suicidal
feelings do pass. Try to portray a death by suicide as a tragic waste of life and convey the devastation caused for families and friends.
• Avoid simplistic explanations, suicide is complex and seldom the result of a single factor, it is likely to have several inter-related causes
• Include sources of support such as CALM’s helpline 0800 58 58 58 and Samaritans on 116 123. Calls to both numbers are free from any phone.
2. CONTACTS FOR MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Please contact the relevant person below for case studies and spokespeople.
COALITIONMEMBER
NAME CONTACT EMAIL
CALM (convening the coalition)
Rachel Stephenson 07793 031971 [email protected]
CALM (convening the coalition)
Robin Robinson 07989 436807 [email protected]
Samaritans Sue Royal 0208 394 8348 [email protected]
British Transport Police
Rhianne 07771 828512 [email protected]
Network Rail Lisa Morrison 07734 649250 [email protected]
Chief Fire Officers Association
Jane Eason 01827 302307 [email protected]
RNLI James Oxley 07786 668825 [email protected]
Association of Ambulance Chief Executives
Carl Rees 07958 547727 [email protected]
Highways England* Stuart Thompson 07881 500866 [email protected]
W Communications (PR agency for Lynx)
Grace HenwoodNikki Guest
07828 04060507813 156965
TMW ( working with Lynx and CALM)
Hema Chauhan [email protected]
*Please note Highways England are under purdah for the EU referendum
3. KEY LINKS
• #MaleSuicide
• Media release 12 May 2016 00:00 available via https://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk/calm
• Photography, from 12 May 2016 approx 13:00 available here
• CALM website: http://thecalmzone.net/
• Twitter handles: @theCALMzone @kensingtonroyal @samaritans @RNLI @networkrail @BTP @CFOAfire @AACE_org @Lynx
• Instagram: @CALMZONE @KensingtonRoyal @TowerRNLI @Samaritans / @NetworkRail @raildeliverygrp
4. COALITION STATEMENT OF INTENT
PREVENTING SUICIDE 'AT THE COALFACE'A cross-Industry coalition working together to prevent male suicide
This unique coalition is made up of representatives from CALM, National Rail, Royal National Lifeboat institution (RNLI), British Transport Police & National Police Chiefs' Council, Chief Fire Officers Association, Highways England, Association of Ambulance ChiefExecutives, Samaritans, and Lynx. Male suicide accounts for 76% of all suicides in the UK. This issue severely impacts many male-centric industries. With an estimated cost of £1.67m per suicide, this equates to an estimated cost per day of £20m. This group came together for a preliminary meeting on 29th April to discuss what we could do collectively to prevent male suicide in the UK. The coalition will work together over the next 12 months to:
1. Demonstrate the impact male suicide has upon society and upon the different industries and communities within the UK.
2. Develop assets for use by men and their peers to enable them to find / provide support when they need it.
3. Develop a common campaign & messaging to reach men of every age in the UK.4. Galvanise and mobilise other industries to join this campaign.
The Duke of Cambridge is pleased to welcome this Coalition and will be interested in charting its progress over the course of the next months and years. Focus76% of all suicides are men and boys. They commonly find accessing help both unmanly and demeaning, and currently don’t identify with many of the public resources out there. Wewill focus on providing means of support which are more appropriate and relevant for men. MessagingThis coalition is dedicated to preventing male suicide in the UK.
We recognise that many types of personal crisis may lead to a man or boy feeling suicidal. So rather than create a coalition dedicated to ‘mental health’ issues, we propose that it directly tackles male suicide. We also recognise that much work is already happening within and between a number of industries. But the work we want to launch here is upstream, aimed at shifting the culture of masculinity to enable men to support each other more as well as seek help further afield. FrameworkMost of the members of this Coalface Coalition are also members of the National Suicide Prevention Alliance, and this work will fit under the workstream with regards to ‘reaching men’.
5. UK SUICIDE RATES BY GENDERThe graphics below have been colour coded using the same scale, with higher rates indicated in deeper reds. Age-specific suicide rates are per 100,000 population. Deaths of non-residents are included in figures, Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year.
Source: Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
UK FEMALE SUICIDE RATES1981-2014
UK MALE SUICIDE RATES1981-2014
7. COALITION MEMBERS
James Scroggs, Chair of Trustees, CALM - James has been involved in CALM since its launch, when he was working at VP Marketing at MTV. James is a CXO marketer and strategist with over 20 years’ experience ranging from ITV Digital, MTV, to celebrated UK Tech start-up SpinVox. James is now Chair of Creative Agency Harriman Steel, founder of HOOPMUSIC, a management and label for of new UK Artists, founder of clothing business MCOveralls, mentor for TechStars and The Marketing Academy, as well as a Trustee of TheMix the ICA.
Jane Powell, CEO, CALM - Jane launched CALM first as a Dept of Health pilot in Manchester late in 1997, expanded it to Merseyside in 2000 before leaving for the US. On her return in 2004 she was asked to close the pilot down. Instead she launched CALM as a charity 2006. She is a seasoned campaigner.
Jacqui Morrissey - Jacqui Morrissey is Head of External Affairs at Samaritans, responsible
for its influencing and campaigning work. During her time at Samaritans, she has led a number of new initiatives, including key partnerships with the criminal justice and health sector, and the development of the National Suicide Prevention Alliance.
Felicity Clayton - Felicity Clayton is Highways England Team Leader for Non-Motorised
Users. Felicity is leading the Highways England commitment, part of our 5 year Health and Safety Action Plan, to develop a suicide prevention working group and programme. The aim of the group is to prevent suicides on and around our road network, and to reduce the impactof suicide and attempted suicide to our customers, communities and staff.
Ian Stevens - Ian Stevens heads up the Network Rail suicide-prevention programme,
working closely with train and freight operations, the rail delivery group, the association of Train Operating Companies, Samaritans and British Transport Police. He has been working in this area since 2012.
Mark Smith - Over 31 years within police officer. Set up the first joint health and policing
team for BTP and currently work as the Head of Suicide Prevention & Mental Health at BTP. Mark also sits on the National Police Chiefs Council suicide prevention and response working group, which has now been in place for three.
Ian Bitcon - I am an Area Manager with West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service who
specialises in safety in the community. I have been in the Fire Service for almost twenty eight years and am currently the Mental Health lead for the Chief Fire Officers Association.
Tim Mundon - VP, HR, Unilever UK & Ireland. Tim was appointed to the role of Vice
President, Human Resources, UK and Ireland effective 1 February 2012 and is a member of the leadership team of one of the largest businesses in the Unilever global organisation. He has directed HR for a number of Unilever Marketing groups across Europe, before being appointed VP, HR for Unilever’s global Personal Care groups and Marketing worldwide. In his spare time Tim is a Director of a non-profit organisation which helps young leaders from around the world to develop their ability to make a positive difference in the world.
Joanna Teasdale - Brand Building Director, Deodorants, Unilever UK & Ireland. Joanna
and her team (including David Titman from Lynx UK) worked on the highly successful #BiggerIssues campaign and has entered into a 2 year partnership with CALM on suicide prevention.
Emma Norman - Group Business Director, TMW Unlimited, Lynx Creative agency. Emma
first got involved in CALM in 2008 when TMW Unlimited offered to support CALM pro-bono on its comedy night. She has since led the successful #BiggerIssues campaign interfacing with Lynx, TMW and CALM.
Anna Parry - Anna is the Head of Strategy and Programmes for the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, which represents all statutory UK ambulance services. As partof her role, Anna is currently overseeing a national study to determine if the incidence among ambulance service staff is above the national average, and to identify what more canbe done to better support the mental health and wellbeing of staff.
Tony Wafer - I work within the prevention arm of the RNLI helping to implement the
organisations target to reduce coastal drowning by 50% by 2024. I facilitated the development of the UK’s Drowning Prevention Strategy, which includes over 200 suspected suicides in, on or around the waters and have been exploring strategy options on behalf of the RNLI to contribute to reducing this number. Being part of this group was a natural fit as one way in which the RNLI could help save more lives in partnership with like-minded organisations.
8. MEMBER ORGANISATION INFO
CAMPAIGN AGAINST LIVING MISERABLY
CALM is a registered charity dedicated to preventing male suicide in the UK. Suicide is the single biggest cause of death for men aged under 45, and men make up 76% of all suicides in the UK. We provide help and support via our helpline, webchat, website and magazine; and we seek societal change so that men feel able to get the support they need early on.
Support
CALM operates a free from any phone, confidential, anonymous helpline and webchat every day from 5pm to midnight offering callers information, support and signposting. We have trained, paid staff on the helpline which is accredited by the Helplines Partnership, with the line operated by a Community Interest Company solely on our behalf.
Calls are received from across the UK, N Ireland, Scotland and Wales. 74% of our callers are men and boys ringing on their own behalf. 67% of callers are aged over 26, with 56% aged between 26 and 55. Men from every background ring the helpline.
Demand is rising on an almost constant curve, and we receive a call or webchat every 2 minutes when lines are open. The CALM website offering advice, support and content has 40,000 visitors each month.
2015 2016April May January February March
Total Demand - All Channels 6106 6153 5934 6338 6312
Impact
The public have from the start been pivotal in supporting our helpline, most particularly thoseimpacted by a suicide, or those feeling suicidal, so we hear daily about the impact a suicide has. CALM has played an instrumental part in the Suicide Bereavement Support Partnership, part funding a worker and hosting the Partnerships meetings. The partnership, now known as Support After Suicide, will be launching a national audit into the impact of suicide later in the year.
As well as providing support services, CALM runs hard-hitting, successful awareness campaigns, including #BiggerIssues and the #ManDictionary. Since CALM was founded in 2006, awareness of male suicide in the UK has helped trebled (YouGov).
Ambitions• Raise awareness so that 80% of population is aware of male suicide• Demonstrate the impact of suicide• Grow a support base for research into male suicide and prevention• Equip people with knowledge of supporting someone depressed/suicidal• Challenge stereotypes of masculinity, such as men having to be ‘silent & strong’, so that
all men feel able to seek help
• LYNX In early 2015 Unilever’s male grooming brand, LYNX, approached CALM to enter into a partnership with the explicit aim of improving awareness of a critical issue affecting men across the UK – male suicide.
The partnership brings together CALM’s expertise on the issue and LYNX’s knowledge of and influence on men across the UK. The collaboration is therefore uniquely placed to drive awareness of the issue, and encourage men to open up about their problems and seek help when they need it.
ACTION
The result of the partnership so far has been the development of the highly successful #biggerissues campaign in November 2015 which grabbed the attention of the public and generated an unprecedented spike of awareness around the issue across the country.
David Titman, Marketing Manager for Lynx: “As a brand that’s been a daily part of the lives of British men since 1985, Lynx has a powerful voice and is proud to be able to use it inpartnership with CALM to raise awareness of this massive issue.
“We want to make a positive contribution to the lives of British men and as suicide stands asthe single biggest killer of men aged under 45, it’s an issue that is really important to us. Theultimate objective of our partnership with CALM is to contribute to re-education and reduction of the UK’s shocking rate of male suicide, and encourage men to open up about their problems and seek help when they need it.”
LYNX now looks forward to working with the new formed coalition to lend its voice and its influence to a push for real change
- By providing men with the right resources when they need support themselves/for a friend
- Ultimately, to contribute to a reduction in the current rates of male suicide in the UK
Broader supportAlongside the development of the public #biggerissues campaign, LYNX also provides ongoing financial support by contributing towards the resourcing of the charity’s helpline.
12th MayLYNX will be joined on the 12th May by a representative of their lead creative agency - TMW Unlimited - who were instrumental in introducing the two parties and developing the recent #biggerissues campaign.
SAMARITANS
Every 2 hours, a man dies by suicide in the UK. Every six seconds, someone contacts Samaritans for help.
Samaritans vision is that fewer people die by suicide. Our 21,000 volunteers received over 5.4 million contacts for help last year. Samaritans is available all day, every day for anyone who is struggling to cope, and is free from any phone on 116123.
Suicide is the biggest killer of men under 50 and of young people aged 20-34. Suicide is notequal - If you are less well-off and male, you are 10 times more likely to die by suicide thanmore well-off men. Suicide is not inevitable, it is preventable.
Support Samaritans provides emotional support to anyone struggling to cope on the phone, by text,email and face to face. But this is not all we do.
We work with Network Rail and the wider rail industry, with over 10,000 rail personneltrained and a new Suicide Prevention and Support Learning Tool rolled out across theindustry in 2015. We train prisoners as listeners, responding to nearly 90,000 requests forsupport last year; we work with teachers to build emotional resilience in young people, andwork in communities through our 201 branches. We work with at-risk men in a variety ofdifferent settings, including detainees in custody in areas including London, Norfolk andManchester, and in A&E departments in Cornwall, Berkshire and Hampshire. Partnershipsare also in place across the country with GP surgeries, mental health crisis teams,ambulance services and with NHS 111.
Samaritans was also instrumental in creating and continues to host and support the NationalSuicide Prevention Alliance, the only national cross-sector alliance in England, with over 60members working together to prevent suicide and support those affected.
ImpactEvery suicide has a wide-reaching impact, affecting family, friends, colleagues, witnesses and the wider community. Given the scale of male suicide, this means that many thousandsof people are affected by suicide every year.
The average cost of a suicide of someone of working age in England is estimated as £1.67m. This includes intangible costs (loss of life to the individual and the pain and sufferingof relatives), as well as lost output (both waged and unwaged), police time and funerals.
Ambitions
We want everyone who is struggling to cope to get the support they need, when they need it.
We want to see emotional and mental health treated as an equal to physical health. They are all inter-linked and should be responded to together and equally. Investment is needed in research, knowledge, skills and services to achieve this.
We want suicide prevention plans in place and being acted on in every area of the country,bringing together a wide range of stakeholders to work together to prevent suicide.
RNLI
Statistics
• There were 933 water-related suspected suicides recorded across the UK in 2010-2014, an average of 186 per year (National Water Safety Forum 2014)
• The RNLI responded to approximately 4,150 suspected self-harm incidents in 2010-2014, accounting for approximately 10% of all RNLI activity (RNLI Operational Statistics 2014)
• Where the gender is known, almost 70% of water-related suicides are male (NationalWater Safety Forum 2014)
Data from the National Water Safety Forum WAID database suggests that over 200 people died by water related suicide in and around the UK in 2014 (National Water Safety Forum 2014). Launches to self-harm incidents form a significant part of the RNLI’s activity. ‘Suspected self-harm’ was the third biggest category for casualties according to lifeboat launch reports in 2014, with 1,078 incidents across the UK and Ireland (RNLI Operational Statistics 2014).
Impact of suicide on RNLI staff and beyond Until recently the RNLI has not fully understood the extent of this issue, or the impact it has on society, communities, families and individuals. Similarly we were not fully aware of the impact on RNLI crew and lifeguards who respond to often difficult situations. It is the RNLI’s responsibility to safeguard its crews and lifeguards against the impact of dealing with so many of these incidents.
Action
Through the use of targeted research and the creation of key partnerships and collaborative working, such as this coalition, we are focused on the issue of suicide in and around the UK waters. We are currently working towards understanding more about the issue and outlining how we can contribute to reducing suicide in, on and around the water. By doing so, we hope to play a part in preventing suicide as a whole.
In March 2016 the National Water Safety Forum, whose key membership includes the RNLI alongside MCA, RLSS UK, RoSPA, ASA and CFOA, launched the first UK Drowning Prevention Strategy. Outlined in this strategy is a clear commitment to improve our understanding of water-related self-harm and suicide; cementing the desire of the lifesaving community as a whole, to do more.
We are aware that we cannot do this work alone and acknowledge we are not experts in what is a complicated arena. However, by drawing on the knowledge of our partners and learning from organisations who are already working to prevent suicide we are confident thatwe can contribute to preventing this loss of life.
THE RAIL INDUSTRY
Statistics
• Circa 4.5% of all suicides that occur in the UK take place on the rail network
• On average there are 256 suicides per annum on the railway
• Each suicide costs Network Rail on average £198,000 and the rail industry in total circa £230,000. In 2015/16 the financial cost to the railway was circa £58m
• Each suicide on average generates 2198 minutes of delay across the network. In 2015/16 the total number of delay minutes attributable to suicide was 554,000 (the equivalent of over 9,000 hours)
• Last year rail staff made 239 life-saving interventions out of a recorded total of 1137
• On average 10 rail personnel or support services staff are involved in or attend each suicide. Each has the potential to be traumatised by the event.
Impact of suicide on Network Rail staff and beyondSuicide on the railway has a significant impact on many:
• Friends and family of the deceased
• Rail staff
• Support services staff e.g. police officers
• Customers
It is the social cost of these events, which is the key driver for the industry’s work in this area, see case study
https://issuu.com/nrnetwork/docs/network_oct2015/1 pages 14-15.
Action
The rail industry’s suicide prevention programme was launched in 2010 and is supported through an award winning partnership with Samaritans (now in its seventh year).
The rail industry has a contemporary video training resource which briefs staff on how to intervene in a suicide and educates them in a range of associated areas such as recognisingat risk individuals and supporting colleagues involved in traumatic events.
The industry has also generated a number of related publications. Two deal with trauma management and support and a third captures the key elements of the programme that our frontline staff need to be aware of. The latter includes a small credit card sized aide memoire to support them when intervening in a suicide.
Samaritans also deliver two bespoke training courses for the industry. The Managing Suicidal Contacts course helps our staff understand issues around suicide and how to intervene in them and the second the Trauma Support Training course provides managers whose staff may be involved in fatalities with an understanding of how they can support them.
More recently Middlesex University and the University of Westminster have been commissioned to undertake research into why people choose to take their lives on the G.B rail network.
BRITISH TRANSPORT POLICE
British Transport Police (BTP) is the national police force for the railway. We help more than six million passengers get home safe, secure and on time every day.
Statistics
Of the 1,658 people who tried to take their own life on the railway in 2015/16, 305 died and 84 survived with serious injuries. 1,269 people were physically prevented from taking their own lives by our officers, railway staff or the public. These figures include Network Rail and London Underground .
Impact of suicide on British Transport Police and beyond
In 2015/16 BTP officers spent some 12,646 deployment hours dealing with fatalities which inin the main involved suicide. We have some 100 volunteer officers who have been specially trained to recover bodies that are entangled with trains. This creates significant occupational health and trauma support needs amongst our staff. In addition BTP deals with some 9,000 mental health crisis and suicidal incidents each year and we manage some 1200 people on suicide prevention plans.
Action
We have operated a suicide prevention strategy and standard operating procedure since 2010, which has evolved over time and contains a number of core elements, including:
1. Multi-agency training – A partnership with the rail industry and Samaritans, which provides suicide awareness training to frontline staff and situational preventative techniques at vulnerable locations.
2. Data gathering and analysis – A central suicide prevention and mental health team, which records real-time data in relation to suicidal incidents and provides analysis, policyand strategic partnership support.
3. Joint police/healthcare response – Divisional teams staffed by BTP personnel and NHS community psychiatric nurses (funded by NHS England and the rail industry). These jointteams provide real-time health information to police officers involved in incidents on the ground and also apply joint health and police decision-making for the ongoing management of high-risk subjects through individual suicide prevention plans.
4. Individual suicide prevention plans – Placing people subject to suicide prevention plans on the Police National Computer with a marker so that officers in other police forces will be aware of the suicide risk should they check on someone.
5. Intelligence-led response and patrol – The use of an operational tactic driven by analysis, which deploys visible resources to vulnerable locations at vulnerable times to seek out people in distress, remove them from danger and access effective multi-agencysupport.
6. A Suicide Prevention Hotline – This telephone number (0300 123 9101) has been provided to health services (especially mental health trusts), frontline rail staff and volunteers. Contacting the hotline alerts us to immediate concerns for the safety of a person who has expressed suicidal intentions on the railway. Our control room operatorsanswering this line are aware of the necessary actions and procedures needed to minimise the risks to life and provide an emergency response. The hotline is used on average once a day.
FIRE & RESCUE
Statistics
It is estimated that the Fire and Rescue Service attend up to 1500 suicide related incidents each year. The modern Fire and Rescue Service is equipped with a wide range of technical rescue skills and equipment and that makes them, sometimes, unique in terms of having the ability to retrieve the body of a suicide victim.
Impact of suicide on Fire & Rescue staff and beyond
Suicide is an important issue for the Fire and Rescue Service for two reasons; firstly, frontline staff are frequently the ones who attend that incident where someone has taken their own life, but secondly, where members of staff are left with no alternative but to take their own life. This is the reason that we are so committed to supporting this particular campaign.
Each year we see people who use self-immolation, or setting fire to themselves, as a means of suicide and that can take place in a wide variety of places, both within the home and outside it. Those who witness this can be seriously traumatised by the event as the individual will be writhing in agony and may take several days while life slowly ebbs away despite the level of care that can be provided.
However, firefighters are called upon to deal with lots of different suicide related incidents. They are able to safely get staff to high places or sites of open water and there are plenty of examples where crews have been involved while someone who is threatening to take their life either from a high building, bridge, canal side or reservoir. Sadly, there are probably an equal number of occasions where crews need to remove a victim who is suspended in a place that is difficult to reach by other means or whose body is in fast moving open water. Recent years have, also, seen crews having to deal with incidents of chemical suicide in the home or other locations.
Given that men are at particular risk of suicide, and the current make-up of the Service is predominantly male, it should come as no surprise that, unfortunately, each year a number of firefighters become victims of suicide. Since 2012 there have been at least fifteen firefighters who have taken their own life. When that happens, there is a devastating effect on the Fire and Rescue Service.
Action taken re: suicide prevention
This year the Chief Fire Officers’ Association (CFOA) has set Suicide Prevention as one of the key objectives of its Mental Health Working Group. This will give the Service to share best practice between local Fire and Rescue Services, but also to look at what other organisations with a similar viewpoint are doing to support their own staff and the wider community and it is with that in mind that CFOA are so keen to support this excellent campaign.
ASSOCIATION OF AMBULANCE CHIEF EXECUTIVES
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) provides ambulance services with acentral organisation that supports, coordinates and implements nationally agreed policy. It also provides the general public and other stakeholders with a central resource of information about NHS ambulance services.
The AACE’s membership comprises all English ambulance NHS trusts and the statutory ambulance services in the rest of the United Kingdom.
Statistics
When considering the impact of suicide upon the ambulance service, data from one of the largest ambulance services in the UK provides a representative example. This service receives over a million emergency calls a year with 950,000 incidents each year, 800,000 of which require emergency transport; this represents approximately 16% of national activity.
Ambulance services use a triage and dispatch system based on a series of questions that lead the call-taker to a chief complaint founded upon the answers provided by the caller.
As an example, activity within the call category that includes psychiatric/abnormal behaviour/suicide attempt (NB. not just suicide) for one trust (geographical area) alone amounted to 33,200 emergency calls and 25,090 responses in 2014/15 and 37,152 emergency calls and 29,397 responses in 2015/16. This equates to approximately 3-4% of that ambulance service’s annual workload.
Impact of suicide on ambulance staff
The ambulance service is affected significantly by the occurrence of suicide given that the majority of cases will result in an emergency call that requires an emergency medical response. This has a major impact upon resource and can have a bearing upon the mental health and wellbeing of ambulance service staff.
Action being taken re: suicide prevention
The AACE is currently undertaking research to determine whether the incidence of suicide amongst the ambulance service workforce is higher than the average national suicide rate and to identify any emergent trends. The outcome of this research will inform the development and enhancement of supports available to promote the mental health and wellbeing of the ambulance service workforce.
HIGHWAYS ENGLAND
Statistics• Between April 2013 and December 2014, over 1,500 incidents recorded as either
suicide, attempted suicide or “threatened” suicide were brought to the attention of a Highways England Traffic Officer.
• Since April 2015, there have been 208 suicides or suspected suicides on the rail network. Frontline rail staff have performed more than 450 interventions during this time, preventing people from harming themselves on the network.
Highways England are under purdah for the EU referendum.