Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CRISIS FEARS FOR SUICIDE HELPLINE
Charity says service ‘placed at risk due to contract uncertainty’
THE charity responsible for Northern Ireland’s only 24-hour crisis helpline and counselling service fears changes under consideration could cost lives.
Contact has run Lifeline for the past 10 years and answers an average of 137 calls a day, many from people who express suicidal thoughts and intentions.
But vitally those who just cannot talk about their despair in the initial phone call are able to open up and reveal their hopelessness during follow-on counselling sessions currently available.
Now the charity fears the Public Health Agency is considering recommending changes it believes would render the service “unsafe and unfit for purpose”.
A PHA draft consultation paper appears to show a plan to alter the criteria for those who will be expected to access Lifeline’s follow-on counselling.
If implemented it could mean counselling help would only be made available for those at immediate risk of suicide and not, as it is now, for those at low or moderate risk.
Contact chief Fergus Cumiskey said such a move would mean 90% of those who contact Lifeline and are currently assessed as being at low or moderate risk would be turned away with no chance of follow-on, face-to-face counselling.
He added: “Research evidence shows 90% of people who die by suicide having sought help were assessed as no risk or low risk by the professional they last talked to.” Mr Cumiskey also said he feared the joined-up approach which now offers a telephone helpline alongside follow-on counselling being split with counselling being provided from at least five sources.
He added: “The proposed fragmented model remains untested with zero evidence to offer confidence in future Lifeline safeguarding against suicide.
“This briefing paper exposes evident dangers arising from PHA plans for Lifeline. In the absence of independent evidence and inexplicable exclusion of quality Lifeline client outcome analysis, the PHA plans for Lifeline which were published last June are unsafe and unfit for purpose. We suggest this instance of unsafe public health planning has arisen in the polarising context of public sector austerity.”
He believes many people would not have the same access to counselling services from April 2018 onwards if the draft proposals were to become the PHA’S final position.
Mr Cumiskey said:
“This fundamental change of purpose remains unexplained and was not subject to public consultation. Every person identified at risk of suicide deserves immediate Lifeline counselling support.
“Only this guarantee will help drive down the suicide death rate for people seeking help at crisis point.”
The tendering process, expected to be opened later this month, is being seen as a way of saving money.
Mental health campaigner and trainer Philip Mctaggart said: “If the PHA makes the changes they’ve proposed it’ll be like trying to put out a fire by throwing petrol on it.
“It’s madness, it’s shortsighted, unethical and shows no compassion for the community or understanding of what’s really going on here in Northern Ireland.
“I believe this new criteria would end in more deaths, more destruction of families dealing with anxiety, selfharm and suicide.
“Lifeline serves a need and serves it well. It is Northern Ireland’s only 24-hour service handling these matters with professional counsellors available at the end of the phone to help and direct help to people and families in crisis.”
It is understood if the draft criteria is included in the PHA’S new tendering process Contact will not apply for the contract. Suicide prevention research expert Prof Siobhan O’neill said she is deeply concerned about the draft proposals.
She added: “It is difficult to understand how individuals at imminent risk would be identified.
“The research evidence indicates risk assessment tools are not effective in predicting risk of suicide and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends clearly they should not be used.
“The recent British Psychological Society position statement myself and several eminent psychologists released on World Suicide Prevention Day 2017 supports early interventions for all those who may be at risk, including people who have engaged in suicidal behaviour.
“I would recommend a risk mitigation approach where the suicide-specific interventions which are showing promise in reducing suicidal thoughts and behaviour are offered by highly trained staff.”
It is estimated Northern Ireland’s rate of suicide is 20% higher than the rest of the UK or the Republic and it is believed that in Belfast this year 58 people have taken their own lives.
The most recent official figures from 2015 show that 318 people died by suicide in Northern Ireland leaving the rate of death by suicide as 19 per 100,000.
The Public Health Agency was contacted by the Daily Mirror but did not respond officially.
New criteria would end in more deaths, more destruction of families PHILIP MCTAGGART MENTAL HEALTH TRAINER