Agenda item

To discuss and approve the draft Lancashire Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy 2024-29 and actions plans, along with an insight through lived experience.

Paula Hawley Evans, Public Health, Lancashire County Council, Liz Dover and Helen Parry, NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board and Angela Allen, Spring North and Bags for Strife Charities provided the Board with a report which outlined the development of a Lancashire Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy which is one of the commitments under the Health and Wellbeing Board's Happier Minds priority. The Strategy has been produced with partner agencies including Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, district council leads, voluntary sector organisations including individuals who have been affected by suicide. It mirrors the national Suicide Prevention Strategy's key areas but with a clear focus on local priorities in Lancashire. It outlines the data and intelligence of suicide and self-harm and sets out an all-age partnership action plan to deliver the ambition to reduce suicides and self-harm.

The Board received a detailed presentation which is appended to the minutes for reference, with further information on the following:

·  National Position

·  Lancashire Position

·  Development of a Lancashire Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan 2024-2029

·  Action Plan 2024-2025

·  Governance

·  Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board System Leadership and Children and Young People's Services

·  Bags for Strife (https://www.bagsforstrife.co.uk/)

The Board noted that the Lancashire Self-Harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy 2024-2029 reflects ambition in the National Suicide Prevention Strategy 2023 and is a call for action to reduce self-harm and suicides by focussing on eight action areas:

(i)  Improving data and evidence

(ii)  Providing tailored support and targeted support to priority groups

(iii)  Addressing risk factors

(iv)  Online safety, media and technology

(v)  Providing effective and appropriate crisis support

(vi)  Tackling means and methods of suicide

(vii)  Providing timely and effective bereavement support

(viii)  Making suicide everyone’s business

With regards to the Action Plan 2024-2025 across the eight areas above, the actions have included:

·  Data and intelligence activity: Real Time Surveillance (RTS), Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Thematic review, Annual all age suicide audit

·  Work with districts and Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector Enterprise (VCFSE)

·  Specific actions on Children and Young People eg all school mental health leads, Compassionate Leadership Hub

·  Drug related death panels

·  Support for prisoners – continuity of care

·  Mental health first aid training for front line staff (Orange Button)

·  Links to gambling and social isolation work

·  Coordinated campaigns

·  Access to bereavement support

The Board were informed that regular reporting on self-harm and suicide prevention would be presented to the Board as part of the Happier Minds programme which of one of the six priority areas.

The Integrated Care Board suicide prevention programme works in partnership with Local Authorities and other stakeholders to support a collaborative approach to suicide prevention activities across the Lancashire and South Cumbria patch.

The logic model consists of five key pillars supporting the national Suicide Prevention Strategy for England.  They are as follows:

(i)  Leadership

(ii)  Prevention

(iii)  Intervention

(iv)  Postvention

(v)  Intelligence

The Board were informed of the Orange Button Community Scheme, which is a button worn by people in Lancashire and South Cumbria who have undergone specialised suicide prevention/awareness training, who can provide comprehensive signposting to relevant support services. 

The aims of the scheme are:

·  Create a community of people training in suicide awareness that have gained skills, including activity listening, from quality assured training.

·  Creating a network of organisations that have Orange button wearers in places that can be identified, who can listen and signpost.

·  To ensure all communities are aware of the Orange Button, what it signifies and how people can be involved, by promoting from within the community.

Further information on the scheme is available from https://www.healthierlsc.co.uk/icb/orangebutton.

Angela Allen, Chief Executive, Spring North, Blackburn, spoke about the loss of family members to suicide.  Consequently, with the support of family and friends they came up with an idea of providing bags containing resources, to those who were grieving through death by suicide, which include practical, empathetic and emotional information.  BAGS is the acronym for the feelings of those affected by suicide "Blame, Anger, Guilt and Sadness".  The Bags for Strife charity was registered in 2021, with distribution commencing in 2022. In the first year of operation, 200 bags had been distributed and to date there has been 2700 bags sent across the UK.  People in Australia, America and Spain have also been in contact regarding the Bags for Strife and "The Little Book of Help" which is contained in the bag. .

The Bags for Strife charity is linked in with the Lancashire Suicide Prevention Partnership.  All the funding is raised by a Steering Group and lots of different people, it is not a commissioned Charity, and the bags are free to those wish to access them, costing around £30 each to produce.

Following the presentation, discussion ensued, and the following comments were made:

·  Further information on self-harm kits can be found here https://www.lancashiremind.org.uk/project/self-harm-safe-kit/

·  Awareness of the Orange Button Scheme is being raised  with companies including construction, leisure and taxi drivers.  A lot of work is also done with schools to make sure that the designated Safeguarding leads are orange button trained and visible within their own school.  The scheme is very adaptable to focus attention on industries such as manufacturing, security workers, delivery drivers, skilled workers.

·  Commissioners are working to embed the Orange Button awareness within contracts. 

·  There is age appropriate work ongoing with primary aged children as well as secondary age as part of the curriculum.

·  In terms of suicide data, Paula Hawley-Evans agreed to seek further information on ethnicity data and work that the NHS have done with BAME communities

·  In terms of the connection between substance misuse and suicide, Public Health have recently convened Drug Related Death Panels to look at the links and as the panels progress, reports will be presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

·  Anecdotally there appears to be  an association between suicide and  recreational drug use, with cocaine being a key factor in toxicology reports of people.

·  There was a query about availability of information on the number of repeat visits of children and young people to A&E, particularly by Children in Care/Care Leavers.  Paula Hawley-Evans agreed to request this be investigated further by the Drug Related Death Panel

·  There was also a query about suicide and health inequalities Paula Hawley-Evans agreed to investigate further.

·  The NHS have committed to providing a report for each of the Place Groups to identify hotspots, with further reporting back to the Health and Wellbeing Board at a future meeting.

Resolved:  That the Health and Wellbeing Board approved the Lancashire Self-harm and Suicide Prevention Strategy 2024-29 and Action Plan 2024-  25.