National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group: annual report 2024-2025

4. The individual and collective commitments to suicide prevention from NSPAG members within our personal and professional spheres of influence

Several members noted work that had been undertaken within their organisations which had a specific bearing on suicide prevention. However, it should be noted that for many of our members suicide prevention is considered as business as usual within their own roles and the work of their organisations and links to related work undertaken within those organisations.

Zahara Hedges and her team at Winning Scotland, through Planet Youth, have shared data from a survey of over 4,000 15-year-olds from 2023 that demonstrated the links between self-harm, thoughts of self-harm, suicide and suicidal ideation and other aspects of children and young people’s lives, with a focus on creating more positive environments for young people to grow up in.

Matt Paden outlined the suicide prevention work ongoing within Police Scotland. This includes:

• Identification of gaps in operational knowledge to strengthen awareness and responsiveness to suicide and those experiencing suicidal ideation.
• Continued development of the Mental Health Pathway with 4,264 people referred on to NHS24 by the Police during 2024/5.
• Support for the roll out of Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) across the organisation in 2024/25 (at time of writing, there were 172 officers trained as DBI trainers, and 802 officers trained in DBI, an increase of 36%).
• The introduction of the Mental Health Index (Community Triage Guide) which provides officers direct contact with a local clinician to ensure a person in need of support is provided the best service.
• Development of the Mental Health Dashboard that now provides a clearer picture of demand on policing.
• Creation of a Mental Health Reference Group that includes members of third sector organisations and those with lived experience of suicide to guide and support the implementation of change within the organisation.

Andrea Williamson detailed work ongoing among the Deep End GP Group, and her own research work. The Deep End focussed on interpreter work and cultural competency for patients from minoritised communities and the importance of continuity of care for Deep End patients. This is of vital importance when considering the health service response when a person is at risk of suicide. The Deep End GP group provided targeted input to the key policy questions under NSPAG’s consideration, helping to ensure that frontline perspectives informed strategic decision-making. Andrea leads the ‘missingness in healthcare’ research at the University of Glasgow which has important synergy both with risks for suicide and the service response required across all aspects of the National Health Service (NHS). The missingness in healthcare work also reinforces our focus on Severe and Multiple Disadvantage (SMD) and that of the NICE Guideline about meeting the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Rebecca Don Kennedy through her work with Equality Network and their Scottish Trans project, worked alongside colleagues at Scottish Government, COSLA and others exploring gendered perspectives and experiences of suicide. She aided NSPAG’s comprehension of the effects of being multiply marginalised, and the risk to mental health / suicidal ideation. In particular, Rebecca has highlighted the experiences of trans people witnessing an exponential rise in anti-trans sentiment and threat to their human rights, and who are relatedly experiencing mental health crisis and suicidal ideation not only to NSPAG, but also to decision makers in Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, public bodies, NHS and Local Authorities (LAs).

Catherine Aspden, as one of the founding members of Emergency Medicine at the Deep End, has promoted a better understanding of the impact of inequality on Emergency Care, in terms of access to care, acuity of presentations and the impact of stigma, and highlighted the benefit of social support being available in Emergency Departments.

Brendan Rooney from Happy n Healthy Community Development Trust built on his work from Year 1. His activities included raising awareness of the strategy and action plan within the Community Development, Communities and Third sector networks, sector(s) and agencies and encouraging fostering connections with relevant sections of the delivery plan and actions by these organisations in terms of suicide prevention. He accomplished this by speaking at conferences and meetings in the sector and writing articles for relevant sector publications.