Suicide prevention

Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust have a vision for Manchester, where it will become a place where people do not see suicide as an option. We have identified priority areas for action within the Trust.

Priority areas for action

Based on evidence and our analysis of national and local data GMMH have adopted five priority areas as the key drivers for quality improvement across the organisation:

• Care provided will be evidence based, timely, safe and effective        
• We will work in partnership with Service Users and their Carers
• We will support Carers and Staff when they have been bereaved or affected by suicide
• We will be a learning organisation
• We will have a competent workforce

We will know that this vision has been achieved when:

• Individuals, communities and services understand, value, and know how to improve and maintain their mental wellbeing - protecting them from distress and creating individual and community resilience
• When and where suicidal distress occurs, individuals, communities and services will have the understanding, confidence and skills to respond effectively, to prevent the build-up of suicidal thoughts, feelings and behaviours
• Individuals and those supporting them know about, and are able to access, help and support
• In the rare event of a death by suicide, bereaved relatives and friends will have timely, easy access to effective local support and information.

Reduce the risk of suicide

• National and local data will be used to ensure that high risk groups are identified and that the services that serve them are well informed, trained and supported
• Manchester will utilise best practice and pioneering approaches to reduce suicide rates for individuals in our care
• Samaritans publicity will be in place at all known frequent locations
• We recognise that suicide prevention is not the sole responsibility of one agency.  Suicide prevention requires a whole community and regional approach.

Be a motivator of change:

• Ensure a combination of access to: high quality self-help materials; a wide and shared understanding of distress and ensure the value of self-help is embedded routinely in practice
• Help provide whole-system workforce development: frontline helping staff will have the confidence and capability to engage with distress either helping a person to help themselves or supporting them to access other services
• Educate and influence so that emotional distress is not only framed as mental illness but also as an understandable normal human experience fundamentally a normal response to stressors
• To experience good mental health and well-being is to feel positive about today, have hope about the future; to feel reasonably confident that despite life stress you can continue to engage with what you personally value.
• Focus on improving the well- being of individuals and communities to help tackle wider problems and inequalities.
• Support actions to nurture the necessary conditions for more people to thrive, enhancing individual well-being, reducing mental ill-health and building community resilience to support those in acute need.

 

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