Hansard

Most of us who speak in this debate probably know or know of someone in their community—perhaps even in their family—who has committed suicide. The loss of a loved one is devastating enough for any family to cope with, but to discover that the loss came about as a result of suicide must pile on more anguish to those who remain. Families who suffer that sometimes blame themselves and wonder whether they could have been more vigilant. Could they have spotted any warning signs and done anything to prevent it? With the natural grief over the loss of a family member comes the additional stress of asking whether a loved one’s suicide was preventable.

Cases that I have been aware of over the years often had something in common, which was the total surprise of the family: there seemed to be no indication or warning signs of what was to happen. Therefore, any strategy to reduce the number of suicides in Scotland must offer some guidance to help families spot the potential dangers, and I recognise that the new strategy does that in several ways. Although we often rely on our dedicated professionals in the health and mental health services to assist us with this problem, families can play a vital role in noticing a family member’s changing patterns of behaviour. I will talk about that in more detail later.

If we look at some of the statistics, as the minister did in his opening speech, we see that there were 762 probable suicides in Scotland in 2012—about two every day, which is quite a sobering thought. In the 2012 statistical report covering suicide information, three quarters of suicides were males and about half were aged between 25 and 54. People who lived in the most deprived communities in Scotland were three times more likely to commit suicide than those in the most affluent parts of our country. Interestingly, two thirds of those who committed suicide were in employment and over half had had mental health prescriptions dispensed to them in the 12 months prior to their death.

In comparison with the rest of the United Kingdom countries, Scotland’s male suicide rates are significantly higher—73 per cent higher—and female rates are almost double. Both have remained above the western European mean since the early 1990s. Despite the gloomy figures, there is encouragement as the trends are markedly downwards; as the minister said, the overall figure has fallen by about 18 per cent in the past 10 years. Indeed, the figures are at their lowest level since those days in the early 1990s.

Much of the good work started in 2002 with the choose life programme, which was recognised as a leader in the field. The steady decline in suicide rates from that time is a testament to the success of the public awareness approach that was adopted. The introduction in 2008 of suicide prevention awareness training for NHS front-line staff has built on that success. The strategy that we are talking about is a natural progression of the approaches that have been working over time.

We do not need to look too far to identify some of the probable causes of suicide, with mental illness, alcohol and drug abuse, poverty, family break-ups and financial problems all playing some part. As the minister said in December 2013, we have made progress, but we need to keep reaching out to those who are at risk and focus our attention on where the evidence takes us. Suicide is preventable and we can reduce the number of tragedies that families face each year.

I was interested to listen to this morning’s Radio Scotland programme on depression as part of its mental health season, in which several callers expressed the need for people to be able to talk to someone at any point in a day when depression strikes. What are the possible warning signs? I have mentioned families who said that they did not notice any changing patterns of behaviour with their loved ones. I am aware of a local case in which a person simply left home one day, with no apparent signs of what was to come, and did not return.

Neil Findlay mentioned some of the causes of suicide. Perhaps some of the symptoms were those that were kindly posted on one of the NHS choices websites, which provides very useful help to families. They included feelings of hopelessness; episodes of sudden rage and anger; reckless acts with no apparent concern for the consequences; feeling trapped; starting to abuse or more frequently use drugs or alcohol; noticeable weight changes due to changes in appetite; people becoming increasingly withdrawn from friends, family and society; an inability to sleep, or sleeping all the time; and—this one might occur to families—someone suddenly beginning to put their affairs in order by sorting out possessions or making a will.

It is sad, but families might recognise those symptoms only after the event because in our busy day-to-day lives we may not think anything of such potential warnings. That is not to say that those are all causes to set the alarm bells ringing, but the advice from the NHS is to engage a person and encourage them to talk about how they are feeling and to share any concerns with a GP or a person’s care team, particularly if they are being treated for a mental health condition.

I expect that other members will develop the key elements in the strategy, but the particular emphasis on more direct engagement with families and carers, more work to tackle stigma and discrimination and deploying technology to provide people with more helpful information will, I hope, improve matters even further in the coming years.

The Scottish Government’s strategy for preventing suicide develops and builds on the very successful choose life programme that has seen a significant drop in the awful statistics. The public have been closely involved in developing the strategy further and I am sure that more gains will be made. Helping families and health workers to spot potential warning signs and providing the support mechanisms for those who are at risk will go some way towards reducing further the number of suicides, which, as the minister said, are entirely preventable.