Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service – responsible for policing the greater London area. The Met polices 620 square miles and serves more than eight million people across one of the world’s most dynamic and diverse cities.

How does your organisation contribute to preventing suicide and supporting those affected by it?

The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) attends the vast majority of suicides that occur within the Greater London area. We are also often in contact with the most vulnerable in society. We have the opportunity to refer vulnerable adults and children via the multi-agency support hub (MASH) to get help. We have implemented a real time suicide surveillance system by working with partners at Thrive LDN. This has enabled the vast majority of those bereaved by suicide to be offered specific and tailored support. It is anticipated that the whole of London will be covered by the end of summer 2021.

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What are your current priorities?

1. To manage the data in to the real time suicide surveillance system

2. to identify key areas for suicide prevention based on data analysis and evidence

3. To train frontline Officers in identifying and better reporting of suspected suicides, dealing with bereaved families at the scene of a suspected suicide and better reporting of attempted suicides

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What challenges are you currently facing?

As everyone, the Covid lockdown has placed a stress on available resources.

The role of the suicide prevention officer is brand new to the MPS. This has meant that suicide prevention policies etc have had to be written from scratch.

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