For the previous two decades the annual suicide rate within the UK has remained virtually unchanged at 10 per 100,000.
However, 28% are known to have contacted NHS mental health providers in the preceding year.
Whereas considerable epidemiological trend data has informed national suicide prevention guidelines, resulting in extensive training programmes and large-scale public health initiatives, evidence-based clinical trial work has been notably absent.
We outline within this issue a whole-population, systems-level approach that meets and builds upon the current suicide prevention activities in the UK, through a real-time triage and hierarchical supervision system that embeds the clinical-trial evidenced Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS), into existing NHS provision.
Embedding an Evidence-Based Model for Suicide Prevention in the National Health Service: A Service Improvement Initiative | July 2020
(Sophie Brown, Zaffer Iqbal, Frances Burbridge, Aamer Sajjad, Mike Reeve, Victoria Ayres, Richard Melling and David Jobes)