Wakefield Council

Our work in suicide prevention

The Public Health Team sits within the Adults, Health and Communities directorate of the council, its primary aim is promoting and protecting health and wellbeing, preventing ill-health and prolonging life. It commissions a number of services addressing alcohol and substance misuses, tobacco and sexual health.

It has a responsibility for improving mental health and wellbeing at a population level, including suicide prevention which is integral part of improving the public’s health. Reducing stigma and promoting good mental health provides the basis for good physical health and for a range of other important life skills, capacities and capabilities.

Wakefield Public Health has developed a suicide prevention strategy that has been consulted on with our partners and key organisations. Previous suicide audits have provided us local insight and knowledge which has gone some way to identify our priorities for action. The strategy was presented to our Health and Wellbeing Board for endorsement and agreement which it received, a recommendation was to join the NSPA.

Our ambition is to prevent and therefore reduce the suicide rate locally and to improve support for those bereaved or affected by suicide. This ambition is consistent with the national suicide prevention strategy for England.

Our vision for Wakefield is that no one ever gets to a point where they feel suicide is their only option. Improving the mental health of the population as a whole is one way to reduce suicide but a holistic and integrated approach is needed to make the suicide-prevention programme focused and sustainable.

The approach will promote coordinated collaboration among all agencies—private, public, and third sector—that may play a role, however small, in suicide prevention. It will ensure the development of a detailed plan with clear responsibilities for actions, while encouraging innovation and experimentation with proportionate evaluations of their effectiveness.

A key aspect will be the creation of a clear pathway for identifying risks and preventing suicide in children and young people. The approach will also prioritise the promotion of good mental health, wellbeing, and resilience across the whole population, with a particular focus on children and young people. By adopting a more coordinated and focused strategy, it aims to achieve greater impact within existing resources.

Our current priorities

The identified priority action areas include reducing the risk of suicide in high-risk groups, particularly men aged 30-49 and children and young people, as well as limiting access to means of suicide. Providing better information and support to those bereaved or affected by suicide is also a key focus.

Public campaigns will be developed, and efforts will be made to support the media in adopting sensitive approaches to suicide and suicidal behaviour. There will be an emphasis on supporting research, data collection, surveillance, and monitoring, alongside reducing the rate of self-harm and suicide among children and young people. Training will be supported and coordinated to raise awareness and reduce suicide risk, while fostering effective partnerships and collaboration through multi-agency working.

More details can be found on our website.

Our current challenges

Developing a partnership agreement of the sharing of information, and then the subsequent data flow of information. Integrating and developing a pathway for self-harm as it’s been identified as a high risk group and prevalence in Wakefield is higher than the national average for self-harm hospital admissions. Engagement with people with lived experience to influence any further development of service, programs and interventions.