Hansard

I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak today on an important subject that, unfortunately, is not spoken about enough.

The consequences of suicide are far reaching. When suicide is preventable, it is all the more heart-breaking for the families who are affected. I, like Maureen Watt, extend my sympathy to those people who have been bereaved in this traumatic way. I welcome any effort by parties to work collaboratively to create a successful suicide prevention strategy that seeks to learn from the good practice that we have seen so far and that looks honestly at where we need to improve. That is why I will support the Scottish Government’s motion today.

Since the early 2000s, we have fortunately seen a positive decline in suicide figures, which fell by 18 per cent in Scotland between 2002 and 2013. Thanks in part to the Scottish Government’s suicide prevention strategy that ran from 2013 to 2106 and focused on improvement in the NHS’s response, assisting people to talk about suicide and developing the evidence base, figures have continued to decline, but we should never be complacent. While remaining sensitive to the fact that suicide figures are prone to fluctuation year on year, we are united in our concern over the fact that suicide figures in Scotland rose by 8 per cent last year—the first such rise in six years.

Although suicide is a complex issue that can be difficult to fully understand, the deaths of 728 people in 2016—an increase of 56 on the previous year—should be taken as an early warning sign that we should act on quickly. That is why I have put forward an amendment to address the gap that exists now that the previous strategy has expired.

Evaluating what has worked so far and what could be changed for the better will be key to informing the new strategy. Charities working with the Government to inform the new strategy have commented on the need for consistency across local authorities, which is something that I support. While each local authority is responsible for the delivery of the choose life suicide prevention action plan, which allows for the tailoring of services according to local needs, there needs to be clear ownership and oversight of that.

The Scottish Association for Mental Health has called for greater transparency and accountability in the funding of suicide prevention activities, highlighting the fact that funding for those is not ring fenced. Through freedom of information requests, the mental health charity found that almost half of Scotland’s 32 local councils did not have, or failed to provide, information on their suicide prevention budgets and the associated workforce. Samaritans has echoed the call for clear reporting and physical leadership.

It is also important that we work towards furthering the use of the evidence base that was spoken of in the previous strategy as a means of targeting resources effectively. When it comes to demographics, for example, we know that people aged between 35 and 49 are disproportionately affected, with 47 per cent of suicides last year taking place within that age bracket.

We also know that, in spite of the suicide rate improving over the past decade in terms of numbers, men are still the group that is the most affected by suicide. In 2016, 517 out of the 728 suicides were male—211 were women—and in the United Kingdom, suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 50.

That is why I congratulate the work of charities such as the Men’s Shed Association. By removing the stigma and creating a safe environment in which men can talk freely and at their will, the charities attempt to address the reasons why men, specifically, do not come forward—reasons that partly concern societal expectations of men’s behaviour and roles. I urge health services to consider how they can cater specifically for men in the future.

We also need to work with statistics from the Scottish suicide information database so that we can understand how people at risk of suicide move through the health system. Although a large number of suicides have had no contact with healthcare services in the months before their death, a national database report that was published this month showed that 70 per cent of them had had contact with those services within 12 months of their death and more than a quarter died within three months of visiting an accident and emergency department.

We also know that a quarter of people had at least one psychiatric in-patient stay or out-patient appointment in the 12 months before their death and that 59 per cent of people had at least one mental health drug prescription dispensed within the same timeframe. Those statistics are telling. They show us that there are opportunities to intercept people as they move through the health system. This is why it is important that NHS front-line staff feel confident about identifying those at risk and are able to provide the appropriate support. I therefore support calls from charities for all health professionals to be provided with suicide intervention training.

Working with all the emergency services is key as well, and I am pleased to see that mentioned in the Scottish Government’s motion. The Mental Health Foundation has called for the national roll-out of community triage, following a successful pilot in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which gives police officers direct access to mental health professionals to support their decision making and reduce inappropriate detentions of people in psychiatric distress or crisis.

I thank the charities that work tirelessly to help those who are at risk of suicide and to improve the public’s understanding of it. Charities have long understood the importance of innovative and specialist campaigns, and I support the Samaritans’ small talk saves lives campaign. It works with the British Transport Police and rail companies in the UK to reach out to those who are vulnerable to acts of suicide on the rail network. Based on the evidence of Samaritans-trained railway staff, the campaign’s video seeks to give travellers the confidence to act if they notice someone who they think might be at risk on or around the rail network simply by the use small talk—a skill that I think that all Scots have.

Recently, I was honoured to meet mental health charity campaigner, Josh Quigley who, after attempting suicide, completed a 1,500-mile cycle trip last year across 80 countries to raise awareness of suicide prevention and mental health. It is because of the collaborative work by charities, public bodies and individuals such as Josh Quigley that we are able to see real change.

To finish, I reiterate my support for the Government motion. This extremely important debate has enabled us to talk candidly about a subject that is all too often still considered a taboo by many. We have a cross-party consensus on the need to prioritise mental health, and it is only by working together that we can continue to bring about an improvement in preventing suicide. I look forward to continuing to work with the Scottish Government in order to drive forward effective policies to tackle mental health issues and ensure that a new strategy delivers successful outcomes.

I move amendment S5M-09000.2, to insert after “complex area”:

“; notes with concern that Scotland’s previous suicide prevention strategy ended in 2016 and that the new action plan will not be published until 2018”.