Suicide Rates in Tees Valley. Mark Burdon 20/1/17

Suicide Rates in Tees Valley. Mark Burdon 20/1/17

Suicide Rates in Tees Valley

Purpose

To provide a brief overview of suicide statistics for the Tees Valley as it compares to England and regionally and summarize the Tees Suicide Prevention Strategy.

Summary

The Tees Valley, like most of the North East, has a higher rate of suicide than the English average. As in the rest of the country, there has recently been a rise in suicides in most authorities within the Tees Valley.

Context

Caution should be taken not to over-interpret suicide rates or small changes from year to year because of shortcomings with the statistics:

The statistics do not include deaths from unknown causes, misadventure, etc. which means that a death will be included or excluded depending on the exact judgement of the coroner and their level of certainty around the motivation behind the death; this also affects the second point:
Because we are looking at very small numbers compared to the overall population, the more specific you go – looking at smaller geographies over individual years and age groups, for instance – there is a lot of variation which could appear to be a ‘pattern’ but is only based on one or two extra cases.

For these reasons it is recommended to look at broad trends and larger areas and view the figures in the context of other information around deprivation, mental illness, all-age suicide, etc.

Suicide among young people

Data on suicide is only available in broad age categories, and deaths under the age of 15 are never officially designated as suicide because of the possibility of accident. In addition, the number of suicides in this age range for females was too low to publicly produce local authority-level estimates.

As the above table shows, the numbers are very low (e.g. Hartlepool had 6 suicides of males aged 15-34), but Middlesbrough, Durham and Redcar and Cleveland councils all saw numbers that are statistically significantly higher than the national average. Stockton-on-Tees and Hartlepool had similar levels of suicide among young men to the national average.

It should be noted that most mental illnesses start in childhood or adolescence, so suicide statistics for adults could reflect factors that had previously affected them in adolescence.

Tees Valley compared to North East and England (all ages)

The above table shows standardised suicide rates by local authority. The ‘count’ is the actual number of people who died by suicide between 2013 and 2015. Where the bar is red, the trend is worsening (yellow is staying broadly similar). Middlesbrough, Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees all had a higher suicide rate than either the national average or the regional average during 2013-15; for Hartlepool the numbers were too small to create a reliable rate.

Middlesbrough had the highest suicide rate in the country according to this measure in 2013-15.

The following page shows trends over time for each local authority:

Middlesbrough, Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees saw rises in suicide rates over the 2010-2015 period; this is similar to national and regional trends.

Local Action on Suicide

Edward Kunonga, Public Health Director across Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, leads a Suicide Prevention Task Force. A strategy is in place to reduce suicide rates; with an aim to have 0 suicides in Teesside. This does not include Darlington.

The Suicide Prevention Taskforce links in with the Tees Crisis Care Concordat with work streams focusing on Mental Health Crisis prevention and targeting vulnerable groups at risk of suicide. The CCGs also have a commitment to reduce suicide levels by 10% by 2020/21 (based on 2016/2017 rates)

The overall objectives of the National Strategy are:

A reduction in the suicide rate in the general population in England; and better support for those bereaved or affected by suicide.

The Strategy identifies six key areas for action to support delivery of these objectives, with the local Teesside actions in bullet points below

Reduce the risk of suicide in key high-risk groups

Re-establish access to local suicide data and alert system
Promote available services
Explore the roll-out of the GP and Primary Care Suicide Prevention e-learning programme
Respond to the Crisis Care Concordat
Encourage workplace policies that support mental health
Support national, regional and local campaigns to challenge mental ill-health stigma and promote mental health
Understand local need and appropriate response to self-harm
Maintain and strengthen the Mental Health Tees Training Hub

Tailor approaches to improve mental health in specific groups

GP Practices to complete the GP audit tool to capture data regarding any potential suicide.
Implement and support a range of preventative programmes to reduce the impact of the current economic crisis
Implement and support a range of preventative programmes to support the needs of specific groups (e.g. women in pregnancy; LGBT, Asylum Seekers etc.)

Reduce access to the means of suicide

Identify local hotspots using suicide prevention audit and early alert system
Support the on-going work between the Samaritans, British Transport Police and Network Rail to reduce suicide on railways
Work with pharmacy leads to support safe prescribing and encourage the return of unused medication
Encourage local authority planning departments and developers to include suicide in health and safety considerations when designing structures

Provide better information and support to those bereaved or affected by suicide

Explore the gap in provision for 0-5 year olds
Manage performance of local support services for those bereaved or affected by suicide
Provide information of local, regional and national services/resources for those bereaved or affected by suicide

Support the media in delivering sensitive approaches to suicide and suicidal behaviour

Promote the use of the Samaritan’s media guidelines for reporting suicide and self-harm
Promote positive promotional materials that
encourage help-seeking behaviour;
encourage support, understanding and recognition of those at risk
Promote access to services offering support
Offer support to schools to deliver training to students around media/online safety

Support research, data collection and monitoring.

Utilise local academics to inform and learn from emerging research
Explore existing protocol to record and learn from attempted suicides
Re-establish the Tees Early Alert System.