Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy. While Lambeth has a relatively low suicide rate, each year in Lambeth, around 15 people take their own lives. The consequences of each one of these deaths will affect on average an additional 10 people.
Suicide has many causes and the majority, if not all, of these deaths are preventable. Mental ill health is a key factor but the majority of those who die by suicide were not in contact with mental health services prior to their death. The causes of suicide are a complex interaction of different factors and can include individual risk factors (such as ill health, substance misuse, mental illness, history of trauma); social risk factors (such as debt, isolation, relationship breakdown or racism) and wider environmental factors (economic recession, the prevalence of poverty, housing crises). As such, there is no one solution to preventing suicide.
A thriving and prosperous local economy, safe communities, a focus on health and wellbeing and a strong start in life can reduce some of the risks of suicide.
Recent times have been particularly challenging for everybody’s mental health and wellbeing. The rising cost-of-living is an ongoing challenge to everybody’s mental health and wellbeing. Therefore, it is now more important than ever for us to work together to reduce the risk of suicide across our communities in Lambeth.
No single organisation can do this alone. We will work through existing agencies and partnerships to build upon and strengthen the actions that we know have an impact. The strategy will build on the work of the previous Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022- 2025 and on the approaches developed with the Lambeth Living Well Collaborative and wider partners. These involve working closely with communities to develop effective approaches which can make a real difference and thereby reduce the number of people who take their own lives.
Councillors David Bridson and Councillor Nanda Manley-Browne (Joint Cabinet Members for Healthier Communities)