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The report of the Suicide Prevention Scrutiny Panel July 2004

(click HERE to read the section on Maytree below)

Chair’s foreword:

Local councils have had the responsibility to scrutinise health matters since 2002.  Camden has tackled this new responsibility in part by setting up time limited scrutiny panels, which investigate specific issues and report back to the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Commission.

One of the most startling health statistics in Camden is that the borough has the highest suicide rate of any council area in the country.  It was because of this that the Commission set up a panel to look into suicide prevention in December 2003, and I was asked, subsequently, to chair it.  I believe the panel’s report will be the first of its kind in the country.

The membership of the panel, drawn from all three political parties on the Council, found common ground on what could otherwise have been a controversial topic.  Our recommendations have been agreed unanimously.

There is no one single reason why people attempt suicide.  The panel’s enquiry established that there were a number of factors that contributed to our local suicide trends.  The map on the facing page shows the places where people completed suicide in the borough between 1997-2001.  Those who recognise the current ward boundaries will also spot that there is a general trend for suicides to occur in those areas with relatively high deprivation levels.  While this is the general case, the interventions we recommend should not just be targeted at people living in those areas currently supported by NRF funding.  For example, the kind of approach developed by Manchester c.a.l.m. in targeting young men to make use of available mental health services, would not need a particular geographical focus if replicated in Camden.

The panel received evidence from a number of organisations and individuals who had experience of suicide.  The panel recognised that the language commonly used to describe a successful attempt still harked back to the time, nearly forty years ago, when suicide was a crime.  But because suicide was decriminalised in 1968 the panel accepted the suggestion made by the Samaritans that the phrase ‘completed suicide’ should now be used in reporting cases.  I hope that the local press protocol we are recommending takes account of this suggestion.

During the time when the panel was sitting some significant items of progress were being made.  Our local Coroner, Dr Andrew Reid, has adopted an approach to information sharing with Camden Primary Care Trust, which means that up-to-date data on the suicide and open verdicts recorded by Dr Reid can now be shared with the PCT more quickly.  The PCT in turn has responded by putting in place an officer to analyse the data received.  This will ensure that local trends in suicide can be spotted and appropriate interventions can be planned by the PCT and its partners more promptly.

The panel researched the kind of facilities available for people in crisis. We found that although there were three ‘crisis houses’ available to Camden residents, which were managed on different models of care and support, they were all situated in our neighbouring borough of Islington.  Take up of such facilities by Camden residents continues to be low, even though the facilities are well used by people from Islington.  The panel recognised that a residential facility should be available within Camden’s borders, and noted that a Mental Health Grant has already been allocated to the borough to assist in setting up a locally based crisis house.  As this report was being finalised it appeared that progress was finally being made to identify a building that could be used for this purpose.

While the panel was sitting, Camden PCT set up a Suicide Prevention Steering Group with the remit of producing a Suicide Prevention Strategy for the borough.  This is work in progress and the strategy and the group will continue to develop after the scrutiny panel has completed its formal work.  I was asked to join the steering group and received a warm welcome from both health professionals and representatives of the voluntary sector who serve on it.  This report includes some recommendations on the current draft strategy, which I hope the steering group will find are helpful as it continues its work.

I would like to thank my fellow panel members, and especially Graham Magee, our scrutiny policy officer, for making my job a lot easier than I first anticipated it would be.  I must also thank all those who contributed to our work, especially those individual witnesses who were courageous enough to share their personal stories with us.

Every suicide is a tragedy for someone.  Even if the individual who takes their own life genuinely feels this is the best way out for them, there will be family or friends who will be touched by their passing.  If by implementing our recommendations the Council, the PCT, and our mutual partners prevent one suicide from taking place, our work would be justified.  But I am hopeful that even more can be achieved.

Councillor John Bryant

Acknowledgements:

Panel Chair:
Councillor John Bryant (Liberal Democrat).

Panel members:
Councillor Pat Callaghan (Lab).  Councillor Dave Horan (Lab).  Councillor Judith Pattison (Lab).  Councillor Sheila Gunn (Con).

Scrutiny policy officer:
Graham Magee.

Committee officers:
Gianni Franchi, Peter Holdforth and Donna Alexander-Morrison.

Contributions of evidence:

The panel would like to thank all those Camden residents affected by suicide who gave evidence to the panel, the voluntary sector and community organisations who contributed to the work of the panel and crisis centres who assisted with site visits.

We would also like to thank our colleagues from Camden Primary Care Trust, Camden and Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust, Camden Council members and officers who gave evidence and a range of other organisations whose contributions are detailed in Appendix 2 of this report.
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Individual thanks should go to the following: Susan Hahne (Specialist Registrar, Camden Primary Care Trust), for her work on the collection and analysis of data on suicides in Camden and the graphs in this report, without which, this scrutiny would have been impossible; to Linda Seymour (Policy and Research Development Manager, from mentality); to Judy Leibowitz (Primary Care Mental Health Development Coordinator, Camden Primary Care Trust) and to Paddy Bazeley (Director of Maytree), for their advice, support and knowledge given to the panel.

The panel would also like to give particular thanks to the family of Naomi Vera who took her life on 6 September 2003.  The panel heard Naomi’s story and the painting on the cover of this report is Naomi’s work.  It has been reproduced here with the permission of her family.

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