To consider the report.

Dan Devitt, Senior Public Health Strategist at Reading Borough Council, informed the Board that there were a few transcription errors in the report which had been circulated as part of the agenda, where Reading Borough Council was referenced instead of RBWM. He shared a trigger warning, if anyone was feeling distressed by the topics being discussed he encouraged anyone affected to reach out to those that they felt comfortable talking to or any of the help line numbers which were available. Suicide was an issue nationwide, with over 100,000 deaths occurring since 2000, of which 200 of these were recorded in RBWM. There was a strong link with those that self-harmed and this highlighted the need to link the preventative measures on both areas. The Berkshire suicide strategy had been refreshed and had been agreed in January 2022. An updated Berkshire suicide prevention strategy was now required to address the upcoming new National Strategy later in 2023 which aligned to a new ten year mental health and wellbeing plan. Suicide affected all communities and deprivation was not always a deciding factor, requiring a balanced approach between universal provision and focused work for vulnerable cohorts. Examples included women who had been impacted by domestic abuse, LGBTQI plus people, and children and young people. The refreshed strategy proposed a new partnership structure and Zero Suicide approach to address the changes and challenges. A consultation on the strategy had been launched in December, this was designed to bring together voices from across the spectrum and ensure a community focused response to suicide prevention. There were a number of engagement events taking place over the coming months to help consolidate the strategy.

Charlotte Littlemore, Public Health Programme Officer at RBWM, provided an overview of what suicide prevention looked like in RBWM. There had been an increase from 2020 to 2022 in the number of completed suicides in RBWM. The public health team had shared the updated strategy with members of the Community Safety Partnership for consultation and comments. A report had also been produced by Network Rail which highlighted actions that could be taken at Maidenhead Station. Once the consultation had been completed, the strategy would be brought back to the partnership for approval. The partnership would then take responsibility for delivering the local actions which were part of the strategy.

The Chairman asked how the council could drive towards the zero suicide aspiration.

Dan Devitt said that all suicides were preventable, anything up to 15 minutes of intervention into someone’s life at a time of crisis could prevent a suicide. Suicide was not inevitable and the aim was to prevent all of them, which was the key message.

The Chairman highlighted that data showed those close to someone who had committed suicide were at an increased risk of a suicide attempt themselves. He asked what was being done in the strategy on this cohort of people.

Dan Devitt said postvention, specialist post suicide support, was now widely available. There were a range of resources which could be accessed to help support this cohort, this included support from Amparo and Papyrus.

Lin Ferguson said it was good to see the profile of suicide prevention being raised. There had been 16 suicides in RBWM in 2022, she asked if these were all adults or if there were any cases involving young people.

Charlotte Littlemore was unable to confirm the details of the data publicly but a deep dive review into the data would be happening. Age characteristics would be considered as part of the review and brought back to partners across the system to implement any learnings.

Councillor Stimson asked if the team would be going to schools and community groups to discuss the signs of suicide and how intervention could play a vital role in preventing suicide.

Dan Devitt highlighted that it would require very careful messaging in the context of promoting public mental health and wellbeing in a non-traumatising or distressing manner. He would be happy to discuss future opportunities with Councillor Stimson and the public health team.