COMMENT VIEW, Issue 37, 2016
www.viewdigital.org
Page 28
Target must be zero suicide
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Fergus Cumiskey, Chief Executive of the counselling service Contact, says we have known for decades that victims and perpetrators of crime suffer heightened suicide rates
ctober 2016 will see the 10th anniversary of the NI Protect Life Suicide Prevention strategy. Lifeline, the regional crisis counselling helpline, a core strand in the suicide prevention strategy, led by Contact since establishing the pilot service for North and West Belfast in 2006, rolled out regionally since 2008. More than 50,000 people have accessed Lifeline support through more than 90,000 annual crisis calls. Lifeline callers suffer great personal suicidal distress and most achieve full recovery. Sadly, more than 150 callers lost their lives to suicide over the decade, more than 30 last year alone.You can immediately appreciate our ambition to eliminate suicide for people in our care. The Contact vision aspires to ‘society free from suicide’. We have built upon the WHO declaration that suicide is preventable, co-signing the March 2016 Atlanta Zero Suicide Declaration. The zero suicide approach, successfully proven by Henry Ford Health Care, pilot projects across dozens of UK and US test sites, regards every suicide as preventable until the last moment of life. Recent research dissolves the myth that people who ‘decide’ to die by suicide can’t be helped. Top studies dissolve pervasive suicide myths with the fact that suicidal people are ambivalent about living and dying until the last moment of life. From thousands of Lifeline case examples we know that carefully negotiated blended care interventions save lives. The zero suicide approach demands commitment to major service quality improvement from NI health and justice systems. A complete rethink on how to eliminate suicide as a preventable harm. To have a fighting chance incremental change formulas must go, setting ambitious goals that stretch everyone towards service excellence. We have known for decades that victims and perpetrators of crime suffer heightened suicide rates, yet emergency services have no formal links with health care systems to facilitate reciprocal risk management information sharing at times
People who come to the attention of police, prison and probation services require systematic networked support, especially in preparation for release from custody
of crisis. This has to change. This gap represents enduring silo based limitation to safe crisis care for people at increased risk of suicide. People who come to the attention of police, prison and probation services require systematic networked support, especially in preparation for release from custody. This means formal agreement by a Memorandum of Understanding between health and justice providers to guarantee integrated support at traditional high-risk crunch points where client isolation prevails, nowhere more acutely experienced than release from prison, police cells and secure psychiatric hospitals. Reliance on incremental improvement will never deliver the ambitious zero suicide goal that perfect crisis care demands. For health and justice systems to accept suicide as a preventable harm, leaders must be prepared to design ‘stretch goals’, never settling for minimum standards set by commissioners. Zero suicide and perfect crisis care require a work culture of zero blame where immediate learning from honest mistakes are celebrated as opportunities to achieve continuous service quality improvement. Zero suicide for people in our care is the only target to aim for. Embedding this bold commitment requires visible, trusted leadership champions.
• “Zero Suicide – An entire system approach” – presentation from Joe Rafferty CEO of Mersey Care NHS Trust https://vimeo.com/148789208
• Zero Suicide Atlanta International Declaration – what does it mean for Northern Ireland? http://www.contactni.com/ZeroSuicide-Declaration-and-CrisisNow.php Twitter: @ContactNI