Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group

Our work in suicide prevention

Our primary role is to plan, develop, and commission health services on behalf of the local population. This includes purchasing a wide range of services such as planned hospital care, urgent and emergency care (including the 111 service), community health services, mental health and learning disability support, rehabilitation care, maternity and children’s services, NHS continuing healthcare, and primary care.

Key providers of these services include Dorset HealthCare, Dorset County Hospital, Poole General Hospital, Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals, South West Ambulance Service, Salisbury Hospital, Southampton University Hospital, and Yeovil Hospital. In addition, many services are offered by providers in the charitable, voluntary, and private sectors, giving patients a broader choice of service locations and types.

We are also responsible for implementing the national suicide prevention strategy in collaboration with Public Health Dorset. This strategy focuses on six key themes: reducing the risk of suicide in high-risk groups, tailoring approaches to improve mental health in specific populations, reducing access to means of suicide, providing better support and information for those bereaved or affected by suicide, supporting sensitive media coverage of suicide, and improving research, data collection, and monitoring. Additional priorities include reducing self-harm rates, which are a key indicator of suicide risk, and striving for a zero-suicide ambition for mental health inpatients. Locally, we have incorporated two additional themes: promoting effective leadership and partnerships and exploring digital and innovative solutions.

To support this work, we hold multi-agency meetings on suicide prevention every three months. These meetings are divided into two parts: the steering/business group, which addresses statutory organisation requirements linked to the crisis concordat, the national suicide prevention strategy, and the NHS long-term plan; and the partnership group, a wider network of partners and stakeholders. The partnership group supports the development and delivery of the Dorset plan, sharing knowledge and expertise across the region. Each partnership meeting is themed, with the themes determined collaboratively by the partnership group.

Our current priorities

We are focused on several key initiatives to strengthen suicide prevention efforts across Dorset. This includes developing a comprehensive communications and media plan of action, establishing real-time data surveillance to enhance our understanding and response to suicide risk, and creating a bereavement support package to provide tailored assistance to those affected by suicide. Additionally, we are working on the development of a multi-agency, pan-Dorset suicide prevention plan to ensure a coordinated and collaborative approach across the region.

Our current challenges

The organisational changes within the STP/ICS have caused delays in progressing work and developing multi-agency collaboration, although this is now beginning to take shape. Additionally, progress on communications, media, and bereavement support initiatives is awaiting the allocation of transformation funding to move these projects forward.