Calls for early intervention to tackle issue of ‘preventable’ suicides

SUICIDES RATES have fallen to a six-year low, new figures reveal, but campaigners have warned that still more needs to be done to focus on early intervention.

Government statistics released yesterday show the suicide rate in Great Britain has fallen by 4.7 per cent in the last year, from 5,870 to 5,668, with efforts by charities such as the Samaritans alongside preventative works by the Government and the NHS credited for the fall by the Office of National Statistics.

But bodies representing local authorities in England and Wales say more needs to be done to combat any such “preventable” deaths.

“Every suicide tells a different but equally tragic story,” said Coun Izzi Seccombe, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) community wellbeing board. “Councils have in place community-based suicide prevention plans but we can only really tackle the issue alongside other public and private organisations. Suicide is preventable, but it needs to be everybody’s business to work together to tackle this tragic loss of life.”

Men are three times more likely than woman to take their own lives, the statistics show, with middle-aged men still at the greatest risk. Relationship breakdown can also contribute, the report found, and deprivation also heightens the risk.

Samaritans CEO Ruth Sutherland said: “Even though a fall in suicides compared with the previous year is welcome, 5,668 people dying in Great Britain in one year is still too high. Every suicide is a tragedy leaving devastation in its wake. These figures emphasise the urgency with which we as a society need to work together to prevent needless loss of life. Suicide is everybody’s business.”