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On #WorldSuicidePreventionDay 
I'd like to say something about the crucial role of skilled, compassionate, effective mental health services in responding to the needs, treating and helping people who may be at risk of suicide
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I'd like to say something about the crucial role of skilled, compassionate, effective mental health services in responding to the needs, treating and helping people who may be at risk of suicide1/
Fundamental to suicide prevention are structural and societal changes: addressing poverty, deprivation and inequalities, and also stigma and discrimination - the negative consequences which people experience for disclosing mental health problems
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Mental health services by themselves cannot create the changes needed for a fair and just society - but even in a fair and just society mental health services are needed. Indeed, prompt access to effective help is an element of fairness and justice
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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It's stated that most people who died by suicide weren't being treated by mental health services, and interpreted as a need to encourage help-seeking and train non-mental-health staff in suicide awareness. It's important to examine assumptions here
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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It's important to acknowledge that mental health services are working flat out, foot pressed to the floor, but often running on fumes.
Thresholds for accessing help and treatment are high, and not everyone's needs are met as we would want them to be
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Thresholds for accessing help and treatment are high, and not everyone's needs are met as we would want them to be
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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If mental health services can't help everyone in need, who gets a service? There's a focus on severity and risk of suicide.
The trouble is, it's impossible to accurately predict who's likely to die by suicide, in order to target services
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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The trouble is, it's impossible to accurately predict who's likely to die by suicide, in order to target services
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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We do know a lot about risk factors for suicide - but a lot of them are structural, population-level factors.
With a relatively uncommon event like suicide, we can confidently identify groups at risk, but we can't identify individual group members
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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With a relatively uncommon event like suicide, we can confidently identify groups at risk, but we can't identify individual group members
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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So if most people who died by suicide weren't being treated by mental health services, it doesn't necessarily mean that they didn't ask for help, or that they weren't unwell enough to benefit from treatment.
It just means they weren't being treated
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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It just means they weren't being treated
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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From a public health perspective, if you can't accurately target an intervention only at people at 'high risk', then it's necessary to ensure access for a larger number of people who are in need
This is the case for people in need of MH services
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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This is the case for people in need of MH services
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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If we as a society are serious about suicide prevention, we must challenge the fallacy that mental health services can accurately target people who would otherwise die by suicide, and expand availability of treatment to all in need
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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We must challenge other fallacies too - such as the idea that mental health services are only needed by people who already have mental illnesses.
Just like car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, endocrine problems, any one of us could end up in need
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Just like car crashes, heart attacks, strokes, endocrine problems, any one of us could end up in need
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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We must of course be mindful of iatrogenic harm: any intervention has risks and benefits. Expanding access to mental health treatments requires a strong focus on excellence, clinical governance, #PatientSafety and behavioural standards
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Fundamentally this is about health and alleviating suffering: risk of dying is as terrible a threshold for accessing mental health services as it is for other health care services.
Prolonged suffering is a risk factor for suicide in itself
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Prolonged suffering is a risk factor for suicide in itself
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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If 'risk of dying' were the threshold for accessing other health care services, there would be no cataract surgery, no joint replacements, no physiotherapists, no treatments for rheumatoid arthritis, no dermatology etc.
Mental health is crucial
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Mental health is crucial
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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So although mental health services don't have all the answers to suicide prevention at a societal level, and we don't always get it right, we work jolly hard and more treatment availability is one of the cornerstones of effective suicide prevention
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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Today on #WorldSuicidePreventionDay , let's commit to turning our fine words into actions: don't just ask a friend, "Are you OK?", ask an MP and others with influence, "What have you done for mental health services lately?"
Together we can influence and improve things
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, let's commit to turning our fine words into actions: don't just ask a friend, "Are you OK?", ask an MP and others with influence, "What have you done for mental health services lately?"Together we can influence and improve things
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Finally, if you are concerned about your mental health or the mental health of someone you love or care about, ask for help.
If you don't get help, ask elsewhere. Sometimes we find hope, help and care in the most remarkable of places. Take care!
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
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If you don't get help, ask elsewhere. Sometimes we find hope, help and care in the most remarkable of places. Take care!
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay
17/17
