Agenda item
TOWER HAMLETS SUICIDE PREVENTION ACTION PLAN UPDATE
Update from Somen Banerjee, Director of Public Health, on the Tower Hamlets Suicide Prevention Strategy Action Plan.
Minutes:
The Committee received an update on the Suicide Prevention Action Plan from Nicola Donnelly (Programme Manager) and Chris Lovitt (Associate Director of Public Health).
Member questions followed by officer response:
In terms of peoples experience at A&E and improving environment can you give an example such as waiting times or how good the teams were in picking up issues and the follow through? Hope Wall is a good example. A&E is busy and may not be the best environment in a crisis but the CCG is doing a number of interventions to prevent escalation to A&E. the Raid service is also good. A&E have placed measures to improve experience for example a triage service. The crisis line is 24 hours and linked to this there will also be a visitation team not just a phone line which will provide a more responsive intervention around crisis.
Do we have a map of where suicides are likely to happen? A map of suicides does not exist due to data protection issues; suicides can take place inside a person’s home for example. When there is a location where multiple suicides have occurred this is referred to as a ‘frequently used location’. Although not location specific, Public Health England have created a map which demonstrates the areas of the country were suicide is more prevalent. Local areas should have intelligence and action plans for any frequent locations in their area.
The Thrive London programme will soon provide information following a suspected suicide in Tower Hamlet which may include location. Thrive London have commissioned a provider to join up information and share the datasets with local areas across London. Tower Bridge and Mile End station are known as ’frequently used locations’ in Tower Hamlets. Public Health will work with TFL to discuss what else could be done to prevent suicide, such as working with CCTV and Signage.
Starting conversations can be an important means of preventing suicide, an example of this is the Samaritans suicide prevention campaign on rail ‘small talks saves lives’. It is easier to establish data sharing agreement on a London wide level rather than local. East London Foundation Trust have a project with DLR staff which has involved the upskilling of staff to talk to people with mental health issues. A Real time data sharing platform is something that Thrive London will launch this spring, and following this, we should have access to data following a suicide at a local level. One prevention approach is to restrict access to high buildings which can be the means of suicide.
What proportion of people who attempt to suicide have been in touch with a council service or a health service/GP? Are opportunities being missed or are people disengaged from services? It is expected that the new data sharing platform, will share information on any previous contact with mental health services. Nationally we know that only 27% of people who died by suicide between 2005 and 2015 had been in contact with mental health services in the year before they died. Understanding contacts with other services prior to a person taking their life would be very valuable. In the background document that supports the suicide prevention strategy, an analysis of the Primary Care Mortality Dataset is included. We know that over the 10 year period 2006 – 2016 11% of those that took their life ‘were not registered with the GP’. Unfortunately, the database does not record any previous contacts with services.
Question on impact measurement for self-referrals: establishing metrics for the action plan has proven to be difficult as they are linked to 5 Year Forward Plan and there are data sharing issues. We will work on this in the year ahead but don’t have metrics for the whole action plan in appendix 1. The Trailblazers for CYP has measureable outcomes and metrics.
Can we get an update on perinatal mental health where has it got to? Officers agreed to email members the most recent plan.
Where will the £1.5 million spending on primary schools be reported to?
Reporting takes place at the Tower Hamlets Together Board’s Born Well Living Well work stream. Officers agreed to share this information post meeting.
Who is involved in the multi-agency steering group? The Group reports to the Health and Wellbeing Board. At the last steering group there was a workshop on planning for next year. Housing association reps are there as well as children’s commissioners, CAMHS, voluntary sector - Step Forward and safeguarding officers. The meeting takes place quarterly and there is a line of reporting up to the HWB which is presented at an annual basis.
Trailblazers – what would have happened had 1.5 million not been awarded for the trailblazer? It is difficult to speculate but suspect waiting lists would have been longer. The increase in funding is welcome but is in the context of existing funding cuts. Suicides have recently occurred in Canary Wharf. Security has been trained to prevent suicides. Some of the larger private organisations have trained staff in ‘Mental Health First Aid’ MHFA teaches someone to spot signs of distress and provide support to someone in mental health crisis.
- ACTION: for health officers to provide the committee with an update on the pre-natal mental health service.
- ACTION: for health officers to share the report on the £1.5 million spending on mental health services in schools with the Committee.
RESOLVED:
- To note the progress made on the suicide prevention action plan.
Supporting documents:
- Tower Hamlets Suicide Prevention Action Plan, item 4. PDF 328 KB
- APPX 1_Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2017_19 Spring Update, item 4. PDF 1 MB