Stigma Statistics

Stigma Statistics, is a London based social venture, we enable suicide prevention through data and technology. Our Suicide Tracking Analysis & Reporting (STAR) platform allows for the collation, sharing, analysis and reporting on suicide data. Ultimately, facilitating real time suicide surveillance.

Our work in suicide prevention

Stigma Statistics was founded by Matthew Steans after experiencing the profound impact of suicide firsthand, both through witnessing a suicide and losing a friend shortly after. Driven to address the pain and suffering associated with suicide, he decided to focus on data and technology as a solution.

At Stigma Statistics, we provide a platform designed to enable suicide prevention by offering timely support for the bereaved, unifying services locally and nationally, facilitating information sharing through a single source of truth, and providing full visibility of the issue to help reduce global suicides. Our platform also monitors hot spots and clusters to drive effective intervention.

Our current priorities

Stigma Statistics is built on four key pillars: Education, Awareness, Analytics, and Understanding. We focus on educating the suicide prevention community about the benefits of using technology and data, while continuously developing tools like real-time escalation plans, care pathways, and lessons learned to enhance prevention efforts.

By partnering with technology providers, we bring valuable insights to the platform, such as monitoring high-risk locations for suicidal behaviour. Collaborating with researchers, we explore the impact technology and data can have on suicide prevention. Our commitment is to continually improve our functionality and services, and we welcome feedback from the suicide prevention community to guide our efforts.

Our current challenges

Our pilot has highlighted three key challenges for implementing a successful Real-Time Suicide Surveillance platform.

First, coroner approval is essential, requiring the senior coroner to designate the suicide prevention group as ‘interested persons’ under Section 47 of the Coroners & Justice Act 2009.

Second, compliance with GDPR necessitates proper information governance documentation and approvals, for which Stigma Statistics has developed templates to support suicide prevention groups.

Finally, next of kin consent is fundamental for providing bereavement support, typically obtained by the attending police officer and recorded on the sudden death notification. Stigma Statistics’ STAR functionality also enables secondary referrals to ensure comprehensive support.