It could soon be possible for local councils to collect real-time data on suicides.

This week (October 28) Richmond Council’s Adult Social Services, Health and Housing Committee approved a new suicide prevention strategy that includes a suicide surveillance group who will meet quarterly to discuss the local need. 

The Public Health teams are also looking at working with Thrive London to develop real-time data collection on suspected suicides in the borough. 

They say this will reduce time spent on suicidal audits and help to inform their strategy to prevent people from taking their lives in the future.

It comes as it was revealed that the suicide rate in the borough is higher than the London average, and equates to 10 to 15 suicides per year.

Hospital admissions for young people self-harming in the borough have also risen to the highest rates in London, which is approximately 116 individuals a year.

Those who have self-harmed are shown to have an increased risk of suicide. 

The new plans include a system to monitor suicide and identify need in the local area, as well as delivering mental health first aid training, support in schools and primary care settings, and a bigger emphasis on hospital discharges that will include a follow up within 72 hours of someone leaving hospital after a suicide attempt.

Graeme Markwell, Senior Public Health Lead, who presented the report to the committee said suicide is preventable and needs “the right support at the right time,” because “people can overcome crises”.

He added: “We want to better understand why people feel they have to take their own lives and talk more openly about the difficulties they are having.”

However, Councillor Geoffrey Samuel expressed concern about access to current services and wanted more detail on how this could be achieved.

He said he had heard of cases of children having to wait for “months” to receive help through the NHS’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAHMS). 

“Until we have better access a lot of this is a pie in the sky,” he said. 

Earlier in the evening he expressed a similar view when discussing the borough’s most recent safeguarding adults board report.

“There is no account for how things really are on the ground,” he said, adding that people are waiting up to three weeks to see their GP.

While the safeguarding adults board is concerned with investigations surrounding adults who experience serious harm, rather than general health services in the borough, it was acknowledged that there are difficulties in the healthcare system. 

The new suicide prevention strategy will bring together different agencies across the borough to help those most at risk. It will be overseen by the borough’s Crisis Care Concordat who will be responsible for overseeing its progress and delivering an annual report to the Health and Wellbeing board.