Sarah Lees (Consultant in Public Health) was present this item virtually.  It was reported that:

Suicide was a major societal issue;

In England ~ 6,000 deaths by suicide each year;

Average cost to society of each death ~ £1.67 million;

Leading cause of years of life lost;

Leading cause of death in men <50 years, in young people and in new mothers;

70% of those people who die by suicide were not in receipt of mental health services;

3 times more men than women die by suicide;

England average age-standardised rate [2017-2019] = 10.1/100,000. Plymouth rate 11.7/100,000;

Suicides are not inevitable, they are preventable;

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic:

They know that risk factors for mental illness have increased during the pandemic;

They were seeing increased demand for mental health services (especially for anxiety and depression);

National data shows no evidence of an increase in suicide deaths to date;

No local evidence of an increase in suicide deaths to date;

Coroner services closed for 6 months in 2020;

Delays to finalised data for 2020;

2020 and 2021 likely to be unrepresentative years (due to coroner delays).

Questions from Board Members related to:

How was the Coroner dealing with the backlog?

Does the audit data get retrospectively adjusted or does this happen when the coroner gives their verdict?

How can we improve preventing suicides in some of these categories where we know there is a problem?

How do we integrate the data on the RTS with the mental health services? Are people known or already in the system?

What were the Triage pathways through MH services?

Whether a separate report could be provided to drill down on how the services provided when people were identified at risk?  Oversight of the pathway and how we were serving people at are present?  It was reported that a Select Committee would be taking place looking at mental health provision within the city.

Asked whether the Plymouth Suicide Prevention Action Plan when available could be shared with the board?

Committing sudiice – when sucide was a crine and the use f kangue when we talk about deaths by suicide.

The Health and Wellbeing Board noted the Suicide Prevention update and for the Suicide Prevention Action Plan to be circulated to the Board when available.