United effort urged to tackle ongoing ‘taboo’ around discussing suicide

A “clear plan of action” on suicide prevention is needed, a leading charity said, as researchers called for the impact of social factors such as poverty and homelessness to be taken into account rather than the focus being purely on mental health.

The Samaritans said there remains a “taboo” when it comes to speaking about suicide and called on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to “speak up” and demonstrate his commitment to preventing more lives being lost this way.

The charity said its research earlier this year suggested almost half (46%) of the population would not start a conversation about suicide with someone they were concerned about, even if they knew that person was experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Tuesday is World Suicide Prevention Day.

Figures published last month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed suicide rates registered in England and Wales in 2023 were the highest in more than two decades.

There were 6,069 suicides registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022.

The rate of 11.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2023 was the highest rate seen since 1999.

Meanwhile, research by global experts, led by the University of Oxford, has called for a “change in the narrative” to move from presenting suicide as a solely mental health issue to a wider acknowledgement of the impact of factors such as poverty, debt, addictions, homelessness, abuse, discrimination and social isolation.

Professor Keith Hawton, from the university’s centre for suicide research, said: “Suicide is a societal issue that requires a societal response. Many suicides are preventable and public health strategies generally have the biggest impacts on reducing population suicide rates.”

Professor Jane Pirkis, from the University of Melbourne in Australia, who was co-lead on the research published in the Lancet Public Health, said while suicide is often thought of as stemming from mental illness, factors like financial hardship, social isolation, discrimination and domestic violence and abuse “wield a major influence”.

She argued that addressing these “is likely to lead to sizeable reductions in suicide rates”, adding that researchers are “calling on governments from around the world to take a ‘suicide prevention in all policies’ approach that would see consideration given to how actions in a range of sectors might influence suicide and its prevention”.

Separately, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) called for employers to address the causes of workplace stress in light of its figures showing a 29% rise in staff seeking support for suicidal ideation from the college’s advice line in the first six months of this year.

Samaritans chief executive Julie Bentley demanded more detail from the new Government on its suicide prevention plan.

On the University of Oxford-led research, she said suicide is “complex” and that different factors can increase risk, including financial deprivation and abuse, as she called for a “cross-government approach” to tackling these problems.

She said while discussing mental health has become more common, there “is still a taboo when it comes to suicide that is costing people their lives”.

She said: “Suicide prevention is everyone’s business and the need to unite efforts across all fronts has never felt so urgent.

“Suicide rates are at their highest in more than 20 years and we are still waiting to hear from the Government about what they are going to do to reverse this. We will not stand for more silence on the issue.

“This World Suicide Prevention Day, the Prime Minister needs to speak up and demonstrate his commitment to suicide prevention with a clear plan of action before more lives are lost.”

Samaritans, using the initials for World Suicide Prevention Day, has set out tips for people to firstly watch out for changes in behaviour that could mean someone is having suicidal thoughts; speak up to let someone know there is support available; play your part by reaching out to anyone you are concerned about; ditch the stigma and speak about it.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Every suicide is a tragedy, and World Suicide Prevention Day is an important reminder of why we need to take action.

“We will fix our broken mental health services. As part of our mission to reduce the lives lost to suicide, the 8,500 new mental health workers we will recruit will be specially trained to support people at risk.

“Our plans to put mental health support in every school and walk-in hubs in every community will help prevent mental health issues from becoming more serious.”

– Samaritans can be contacted for free, 24/7, on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit www.samaritans.org