LGA responds to ONS suicide statistics

12 Sep 2017 09:55 AM

Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, Cllr Izzi Seccombe, responded to the number of registered deaths in the UK from suicide in 2016 published by the Office for National Statistics

“Every suicide tells a different but equally tragic story.

“Suicide prevention is a high priority for councils, which already provide a range of vital services that support the health and mental wellbeing of our communities.

“However we need a root and branch overhaul of mental health services, which focuses on prevention and early intervention, particularly for children and young people.

“It is also crucial that we have the right investment in mental health and suicide prevention services. Councils support the £1 billion being invested in the NHS by 2020 to address mental health, but there needs to be a similar commitment to invest in local government to help tackle mental illness and prevent suicide.

“Councils have in place community-based suicide prevention plans but we can only really tackle the issue alongside other public and private organisations, such as schools, railway operators, supermarkets, hospitals and police stations.

“Suicide is preventable, but it needs to be everybody’s business to work together to tackle this tragic loss of life.”

Notes to editor

Suicides in Great Britain: 2016 registrations