The North East and North Cumbria Suicide Prevention Network were recently nominated for the CLIC Awards 2022. Read about the fantastic improvement work they have been doing below:
“North East and North Cumbria Suicide Prevention Network launched in response to the high rates of suicide across the Integrated Care System, and the devastating impact of suicide to the individual, family, friends, colleagues and wider community.
The Networks overarching multi-agency shared values and approach, aims to help enhance and support all suicide prevention activity across the region. The ambition is to do everything possible to reduce suffering, prevent suicides and reduce the impact where this does happen.
Priority workstreams:
The Zero Suicide Ambition is one of 5 ICS priority workstreams identified for improving mental health across the Northeast and North Cumbria. It is led by the multiagency NENC Suicide Prevention Network – part of the suicide prevention programme within the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health.
Our Network approach supports collaboration across service boundaries helping to ensure expertise, best practice and learning is shared across agencies. Gaps and potential duplication are identified, resources are shared/made widely available to improve efficiency, effectiveness and economy of the Network and related activity, ensuring impact at scale.
This has been developed by mapping local suicide prevention plans and following a series of regional engagement workshops and events with people with lived experience and variety of professionals across the ICS – supporting local and regional action.
Our key messages:
Through workshops Network members developed values to guide and underpin our work:
Although the Network isn’t ‘new’ it has recently developed significantly in September 2021, in which we were successful in securing funding for dedicated team members for each of the priority workstreams allowing us to make great progress.
The Networks workstream for Real Time Surveillance (RTS) has an effective suspected suicide alerts system. This is used to identify emerging trends and issues and inform suicide and self-harm prevention action. This is key to ensuring the other Network workstreams are informed by timely and accurate intelligence. The RTS group recently produced a bulletin to highlight the need to strengthen efforts in reducing prescription drugs as a means for suicide. Recommendations and resources are included, and it is being shared with appropriate groups.
The Network’s Connecting with people (CWP) training programme was adapted to the difficult circumstances of Covid. Despite this, between April 1st – March 22nd 2022, an impressive 531 courses were delivered and over 3,000 people received training on emotional resilience, self-harm and suicide awareness/response. Comprehensive evaluation, incorporating Kirkpatrick’s 4 Stage Model, is underway to capture pre, post and longer-term impact, measuring quality of trainers, relevance of content and learning to take forward. Although evaluation is in its infancy, results to date demonstrate the potential for reducing harm and creating safer services.
“Made me feel normal and convinced me to self-reflect; made me aware of my emotions and gave the opportunity to care about myself more”.
The Network Postvention workstream focuses on assisting consistent, effective processes for support across the Network, ensuring those effected receive timely, quality support. Including Rosendale online training (April 2021 to 31 March 2022 – 132 trained) which ensures people are best equipped to provide effective support whilst supporting their emotional well-being and resilience during delivery. The Network uses the national ‘Help is at Hand’ booklet alongside bespoke local offers across the Network footprint. Examples include the Cumbrian Support booklet, produced in collaboration with people with lived experience. We have also supported Cleveland Police to develop a postvention support system which is an invaluable asset to both the local area and Network.
Our Resource Tins have been a brilliant outcome of the Network, approximately 4000 tins distributed around the region. The tins include a variety of resources and signposting information. The goals for the tins and website are to make information more readily available and to promote discussion surrounding suicide and mental health to ultimately reduce stigma and suicides.
By working closely with people affected and by coordinating our efforts as a Network with shared priorities across public health, social care, primary care, secondary care, emergency services, local charities, businesses, and community groups, we are in a much better position to make a real and lasting difference. Although challenging we will ensure that at every part of the system a common language is used, providing the potential for all people at all levels of care to access helpful intervention to maintain safety.
The Network funded and initiated the CWP train the trainer programme. The program is internationally recognised/awarded, developed by experts in self-harm and suicide/those with lived experience. The program provides training in using compassionate, person-centred clinical tools, and promotes a standardised language to describe the nature and intent of suicidal thoughts. A key reason this program was selected was its suitability to a wide audience and transferability across all sectors and groups. A variety of sectors/professions/roles have accessed CWP training from across the region including health, local authority, charities and education.
“This course should be taught to all young people in secondary school and university institutions.”
We believe that the Tins have the potential for national and international spread and have been taken to a recent international conference by police colleagues. They have already had regional spread and the project was shortlisted for a 2021 HSJA – communications initiative of the year.
The Network is one of seven areas identified nationally as having an effective RTS system in operation who are now working together, sharing best practice to shape a National Standard Operating Procedure in the future.
As a Network we have online platforms including a website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages used to share resources, promote key messages and campaigns. Social media is also used to respond to adverse online events with collaboration from the Samaritans. Over the Winter the Network launched a “No one should be alone this Winter” campaign, key messages being looking out for your neighbours and each other with a focus on older people (Informed by RTS). Social media pages were used to share resources and suggestions leading up to Christmas time. This resulted in a 244% reach increase over Facebook. In September 2021- World Suicide Prevention Day – we launched a campaign with key message of creating hope through action which increased our online engagement and ended with a well-attended online event.
The entire Network is based on a model of early intervention and prevention. This is best for patients and cost effective, due to reduced impact on other services (emergency services, postvention) in terms of expenditure, case load and staff capacity.
Ultimately, the Network model aims to prevent all suicides. A real-world example of the value of the Network is that of a man who had sadly decided to take his own life. As he was making his way to a location to do this, by chance he walked by one of our grassroots projects and was drawn in. He disclosed that had it not been for this he would have gone through with his decision to take his own life. Everything else aside we believe that this is the most important value of the Network.
A key/essential component of the Network is the provision of high-quality training. With the appropriate knowledge, attitudes, skills and confidence – suicide is preventable. As part of the CWP program, a train the trainer model was selected for its potential for building capacity and ensuring future sustainability. Our Rosendale training is also the best value for money compared to PAABS training.
Communication within the Network is vital for avoiding the duplication of work. We hold frequent meetings with partners and stakeholders from organisations within the ICS to ensure everyone is up to date with work being done, sharing our resources with partners to prevent unnecessary duplication.
Following the distribution of our Resource Tins, one of our Suicide Prevention coordinators was approached by a private company wanting to purchase Tins for their staff and customers. Wanting to increase the spread of these Tins, our SP coordinator requested a donation to be made to a local Mental Health charity. This was to ensure that more people would benefit from the Tins whilst supporting local mental health services.
The Network has many plans, some examples currently underway – collaborating with various charities, organisations and local authorities to introduce practical support for the increase in living costs. We reached out to places such as food redistribution organisations and received positive response about collaborative working moving forward. Our aim is to be able to make a real impact on people’s lives especially in areas of heavy deprivation.
We will keep working forward with the ultimate ambition of a zero-suicide community and suicide safe services.
Working with people personally affected has been at the heart of the Network from the beginning. Our very first planning workshop was introduced by a mother who had lost her son to suicide so from the start, the Network focus was established – developing and agreeing the priorities, values and aims, to directly leading and influencing Network projects. Resource tins were created in collaboration with people with lived experience as part of our system wide project to improve access to mental health information for everyone.
The Network work in partnership with a range of organisations to carry out research projects. A recent example is a safety planning project in collaboration with Teesside and Northumbria University. The qualitative study aims to co-produce, with people with lived experience of suicidality, an evidence-based framework (covering training, support structures, tools, documentation and policy to inform routine practice) for practitioners on personalised risk management and safety planning, sensitive to the needs, preferences and values of people from high risk and under-represented groups experiencing suicidality. The framework will focus on early intervention and adopt an inclusive, person-centred approach to risk management and safety planning. It is hoped that this will help practitioners support individuals experiencing suicidality develop alternative ways of managing intense distress and pre-empt a mental health crisis. Central to this project is the group of experts by experience on the team who bring their own personal perspectives and expertise.
The core RTS group is made up of professionals with a variety of expertise who meet monthly to review the latest data and consider trends, patterns, emerging methods, potential clustering and any other new intelligence. The Network use this to inform postvention support, suicide prevention activity and national real time data. The group is also collaborating with NorthWest Ambulance Service (NWAS) and NorthEast Ambulance Service (NEAS) to further develop real time data sharing in relation to self-harm and suicide attempts using the same principles. A practical example of this is a support organisation tailoring their provision and extending working hours based on real time data provided by the Network.
We regularly ask for feedback from key stakeholders and ensure we listen constructively to comments which has fostered a team effort approach across organisations with suicide prevention at its heart. Our Network continues to link in with other areas to share good practice and enhance cross border collaboration – we welcome enquiries and assist wherever possible.
A very recent evaluation of the Network has highlighted the immense progress we have made over the past year! We are very proud of what we have managed to achieve.”
For more information about the The North East and North Cumbria Suicide Prevention Network, please contact: [email protected]
