Barnet, Enfield & Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust

Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust is a large provider of integrated mental health and community health services in north London. The Trust currently employs 2,900 staff and we serve a population of just over a million. We provide specialist mental health services to people living in the London boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey, and a range of more specialist mental health services to our core catchment area and beyond. Following the transfer of Enfield Community Services in 2011, we also provide the full range of child and adult community health services in Enfield and are increasingly integrating these with our mental health services to provide a range of holistic services.

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

We take a proactive role in suicide prevention across all aspects of our clinical services. We recognise the need to embed this strategy at every level within the organisation and to be identified within the community as a beacon of positive practice.
We have a clear policy on working in partnership with families, carers and support networks of patients including post incident and strive to offer the appropriate level of support in each individual case.

What are your current priorities?

We are currently implementing a Marine Service with the Metropolitan Police that seeks to reduce the number of suicides rescued from the River Thames. This will be in line with a liaison and diversion model currently with the British Transport Police that seeks to reduce the number of incidents on the rail network related to those with suicidal ideation and/or mental health issues.

We will ensure that information related to serious incidents, specifically associated with self-harm and/or suicide is captured in a single action plan, analysed and reviewed and shared across services.

As well as developing a rolling programme of work reviewing the environmental, procedural and relational risk across inpatient services is being carried out to ensure all systems are as robust as they could possibly be.

What challenges are you currently facing?

The wider sharing of learning and good practice across all agencies that care for some of the most vulnerable members of society. The sharing of clinical information between partner agencies continues to present difficulties when professionals are not aware or do not understand their ability to share information when consent is not given.