Suicide Prevention

Around 10 people a week take their own life in London Although London’s suicide rate is the lowest in England, it varies significantly across the capital. 

Thrive LDN is the regional lead for suicide prevention in London on behalf of NHS England.  

As part of our role, we facilitate the multi-agency Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Group made up of 39 organisations and 56 individual members. The group oversees the development of regional strategy for suicide prevention, delivers citywide projects to prevent suicide and supports those affected by suicide.  

 Thrive LDN and partners share the ultimate aspiration of making London a zero suicide city. We are working together to learn from current good practices of working which will better enable connections and conversations across London partners that will assist suicide prevention and reduction. 

We believe partnership working is paramount to creating meaningful change. Below you read about our current and past projects and find out more about how we are working with partners to inform methods of prevention

#ZeroSuicideLDN

More than 10 people a week take their own life in London. If someone was in crisis, would you know what to say? Since 2019, Thrive LDN has led the #ZeroSuicideLDN campaign to encourage thousands of Londoners to take FREE online suicide prevention training.

We’ve partnered with the Zero Suicide Alliance, who have created a training program to help people to be able to identify warning signs and to feel comfortable having conversations about suicide. Click here to read more about the campaign and to take the training. 

Real Time Surveillance System

Launched in 2019, Thrive LDN’s Real Time Surveillance System (RTSS) is a source for monitoring individual suspected suicides for the London region. It is co-hosted by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to provide a platform to securely collect and share real-time data on suspected suicides between multiple agencies. 

 This real-time monitoring of suicide incidence enables more targeted prevention programmes that address identified patterns of suicide within London. Doing so helps to reduce the number of Londoners who take their own life whilst providing invaluable insight into circumstances around suicide and mental health issues in London. Given the known higher risk of suicide of those bereaved by suicide, the system also facilitates real-time referral of those impacted by suicide into NHS-commissioned bereavement services.

Suicide awareness and response training for GPs

Management of suicide risk among patients should be individualised, with focus on the person’s immediate and longer-term needs to support their safety. However, it is recognised that policies and training on suicide risk management, which can support appropriate assessments in primary care, are currently variable, and staff capacity is limited. 

In partnership with training provider 4 Mental Health, Thrive LDN is offering free suicide awareness and response training for a Mental Health GP lead in all London boroughs. The training confers qualification to use SAFETool which supports clinical suicide risk management. After the course, SAFETool is available to download free on EMIS. 

For more information or to register interest in attending the training, please email rf.tr.thriveldn@nhs.net with your name, GP practice name and manager, and London borough. 

Reducing Access to Medication as a Means

Unused prescription medicines cost the NHS approximately £300 million per year in the UK and pose a patient safety risk. The Thrive LDN Suicide Prevention Group has agreed on regional suicide prevention priority areas for 2023-24, one of which will focus on reducing access to medication as a means (RAMMs).  

Taking account of the sustained changes to working practices in community, primary and secondary care sites; namely the shift toward virtual consultation, bespoke training for General Practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists may be beneficial to support local compliance with national guidance on safer prescribing. 

Thrive LDN will form new partnerships with Primary Care Networks and scope training requirements for general practice and community pharmacy staff to support safer prescribing practices. This includes dispensing short-term supplies, regular medication reviews, and enquiries into unused medication to facilitate its return to dispensaries for safe disposal.

Past Projects

Suicide Prevention Education   

Thrive LDN recognises the importance of instilling suicide prevention at an early age to address poor mental health and to ensure that Londoners live in a suicide safer city. We have worked with Papyrus UK to provide tailored suicide prevention education to schools, colleges and universities across London.  

In 2019, a series of suicide awareness and prevention training sessions aimed at equipping schools and young people to become suicide safer. Three training levels were offered to schools aimed at driving awareness to spot and address warning signs that a young person might be thinking of suicide, developing a school safety plan and how to provide direct support. As a result of this training, over 1,140 school staff across all London boroughs were trained. Further details of the project can be found in the page here   

Following the success of the school’s pilot, we developed a suicide prevention training offer to address the growing mental health needs of students. Evidence shows that suicide remains the highest cause of death for those aged between 18-25 years. Moreover, 75% of anxiety, mood, impulse control and substance use disorders develop by the age of 24. This project aimed to upskill and equip staff and institutions with the knowledge and skills to better understand suicide, suicide prevention and develop appropriate safeguarding procedures for vulnerable students. This training supported 350 staff from over 80 higher and further education institutions across London. The training has enabled staff to respond to students thinking about suicide and to help keep them safe. Further information on the project can be found here.   

The education program consists of three different workshops – a 90 minute session, half day session and the ASIST two-day course.