Hansard

As I said in my opening speech, the Scottish Government is committed to continuing the strong downward trend in suicides. I am pleased that the desire to work collaboratively on the issue has been evident today among members on all sides of the chamber. I thank them all for sharing their experiences and knowledge in this area, and we will take on board their contributions in developing the new plan.

Partnership is central to suicide prevention. A new action plan on suicide prevention will create the conditions to strengthen our current relationships with partners, and reveal opportunities to develop new partnerships where appropriate in working towards our shared aim of ensuring that the long-term downward trend in the Scottish suicide rate continues.

I thank all the partners at both national and local level who provide support to vulnerable individuals and who have contributed to action on suicide prevention in Scotland over recent years. As has been said, in the past decade we have seen a 17 per cent reduction in the suicide rate, and the gap in suicide rates between the most deprived and least deprived areas of Scotland has narrowed by 42 per cent.

Many members mentioned the increase in suicide in the past year. We cannot extrapolate a trend from one year’s figures, as we need to see the five-year rolling averages, but we are determined to ensure that the long-term downward trend in suicides continues.

Our future suicide prevention action plan will be based on a range of resources, including the experience of those who have been bereaved by suicide, and the latest research evidence on what works in this very complex area. I urge all members who told the harrowing stories of constituents today to urge those constituents to feed their experiences into the new action plan. Some have already done so, and I urge the others—including the lady from Willie Coffey’s constituency—to feed in their thoughts on what should be in the next action plan. The plan will involve suicide prevention for everyone across the population and will take account of determining factors as well as characteristics and factors that can help to protect against suicide. I assure members, including Alison Johnstone, that the next action plan will be for everyone, regardless of background: rural or urban, refugee or asylum seeker or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex.

Johann Lamont and Jeremy Balfour mentioned postnatal depression. I had a great morning at the Juno project, which Mr Balfour knows well. We have already set up a new managed clinical network for antenatal and postnatal care, which covers postnatal depression, and there are many groups like the Juno group in Edinburgh that offer peer support for women who are experiencing postnatal depression.

The programme for government sets out our ambitions for building strong and safe communities, tackling poverty, improving housing and eradicating rough sleeping, all of which will necessarily touch on suicide prevention in one way or another. As we have said before in relation to the mental health strategy as a whole, the suicide prevention action plan will not be delivered by the health portfolio alone but will require work across portfolios.

The issue of what people can do when they need help has been brought up by a number of members. A range of factors can help to reduce the risk of suicide. As many members said, suicide is preventable. Supporting factors include social connectedness, close and supportive relationships, family resources and individual resources such as problem solving skills and personal resilience, and, of course, looking after one’s physical health as well as one’s mental health, as Brian Whittle reminded us.

It is important that we encourage and promote suicide prevention training and related work to raise awareness of suicide and its prevention, as well as taking wider action to address stigma. It is also important to encourage and support the work of local groups, which is what choose life plans and local co-ordinators do. I have witnessed the help that peer support can give to families affected by suicide and to those who have attempted suicide.

When people feel that they need additional support, they should consult their GP, but there is a range of out-of-hours supports such as NHS 24, NHS inform, breathing space and Samaritans. I recognise that men may feel stigmatised by going for support locally, so it is important that everybody knows of those sources of help when they experience low mood, depression or anxiety. Last week, I visited the Edinburgh crisis centre run by Penumbra, which provides short-term support to people experiencing emotional or mental health crises, including those who feel suicidal. I was struck by the emphasis that the centre places on listening and on treating people with compassion.

Many members, including Finlay Carson, who made a powerful speech, mentioned the incidence of suicide in rural areas. I helped launch the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs are ewe okay? campaign at Thainstone mart in the north-east. I am pleased that the campaign won an award recently. The rural mental health forum has gone from strength to strength. Suicide is an issue that is very much on its agenda and the forum will take the issue forward.

The use of social media is now commonplace among children and young people. It can be a positive way of helping people to access information about supporting their health and wellbeing. I have mentioned the suicide prevention app, which has been well used in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. However, we need to be vigilant about the challenges that social media can present, for example around bullying, social isolation and encouraging risky behaviours. There are positive and negative aspects to social media, and we should harness the positive aspects in our next plan.

As NHS Health Scotland reminds us in its awareness-raising work,

“If you can read between the lines, you can save lives.”

Members have stressed that suicide is preventable. In addition to directing people to see their GP or to phone breathing space or Samaritans, if we are worried about someone, we should ask directly about their feelings, because that can help to save lives.

The signs of suicide can be ambiguous, but we should be alert to the warning signs and take all signs of distress seriously, even if the person seems to be living a normal life. We will know that we are making improvements when people feel comfortable about asking for help if they are in distress, and when people are also comfortable offering help if they see someone in distress.

We know that more men than women are successful in committing suicide, and we need to find out the underlying causes. Men really need to open up.

Suicide is preventable, and it is everyone’s business. I assure members, including Johann Lamont, that the health team is ensuring that we can extract every single penny from the finance secretary for the health budget, including the budget for our next action plan.

Our focus in working with partner organisations is on learning from the best examples around the country and sharing them. We should note the research evidence from the confidential inquiry into suicide and homicide by people with mental illness, for example. That shows that there is a heightened risk of death by suicide for mental health patients who have been discharged from in-patient care. We will certainly give our full attention to that in the new strategy. I fully appreciate that the issue is extremely challenging and that there need to be risk assessments of people who are experiencing mental illness.

Some members have mentioned that the strategy has expired. I assure members that the actions in it continue to be implemented across Scotland. Indeed, we have seen lots of new and innovative practices in local areas to continue to reduce the suicide rate.

I strongly associate myself with the sentiments in Monica Lennon’s amendment that inequality is compounded by the welfare cuts and that people who are left with no money feel particularly helpless.

I appreciate all the information and thoughts that members have shared in the debate. I assure members that they will be taken on board in developing the new action plan and that a group will be set up to monitor the actions in the new strategy, just as one was set up with the mental health plan.