Warning Against Complacency As Highland Suicide Rate Falls

Highland Council is to spend £148,000 this year on suicide prevention measures, despite a 42% reduction in such death rates.

The most up-to-date statistics have revealed there were 40 confirmed cases in 2006 – 36 of them male – compared with 54 in 2000.

But the authority’s resources committee yesterday heeded a chilling message from Cameron Stark, a Raigmore Hospital-based consultant in public health, not to be complacent.

The former Scottish Executive set a national target six years ago to reduce the suicide rate by 20% by 2013.

Previously ring-fenced funding was allocated to local agencies for the purpose with the key focus on early prevention.

Research has found higher-than-average rates of suicide in remote and rural areas, and in areas with high levels of social and economic deprivation. Updating committee members, the council’s policy manager, Cath King, said: “There’s clearly a remote and rural element to this and many of these people have not had contact with mental health services, particularly in the year prior to their death which illustrates that suicide prevention is a corporate issue that we all need to be thinking about.”

Dr Stark, whose recent research established the reduction in suicide rates, suggested complacency would be dangerous.

“It’s very important that we don’t take any great comfort from the reduction. It’s really good there’s been a reduction, but I wouldn’t want it to make us feel that we’d sorted the problem,” he said.

Scottish Government support for the national Choose Life strategy which is tackling the problem previously came in the form of ring-fenced grants. As part of a government rethink it is now rolled into the council’s grant settlement from Edinburgh.

Funding available to Highland for the current financial year amounts to £113,000 plus £35,000 carried over from last year.

Ms King said the removal of ring-fencing offered more flexibility in use of the resources.

Part of the funds will go towards achieving a target of training 50% of front-line health staff in suicide assessment within two years.

Ms King told the committee that the region’s strong record on training was exemplary, with 385 NHS staff trained by March this year, amounting to 24% of the target.

Additionally, 105 social work staff have already been trained.