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Rising 15 to 19 suicide rates spark a focus on self-harm

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With increasing numbers of young teenagers taking their own lives, and thousands of young people self-harming, the National Suicide Prevention Strategy is expanding its remit to specifically target a reduction in self-harm. Pete Henshaw reports

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy is strengthening its focus on self-harm prevention in light of increasing concerns about young people’s mental health.

The third progress report of the cross-government National Suicide Prevention Strategy – published earlier this month by the Department of Health – expands the strategy to include self-harm prevention in its own right and warns about rising rates of emotional problems and self-harm in young people.

Suicide rates in England have been rising since 2007, making suicide the biggest killer of men under-50 and one of the leading causes of death for young people and new mothers.

In young people, rates of suicide between the ages of 10 and 29 have remained stable since 2005. However, there is concern that suicide rates for 15 to 19-year-olds have risen for the last three years running.

Overall, men are the most at-risk group and are three times more likely to die by suicide than women. In total, an average of 13 people kill themselves every day in England.

The report says that self-harm, including attempted suicide, is the “single biggest indicator of suicide risk” and currently in England more than 200,000 hospital attendances a year are a result of self-harm.

It comes after recent figures from Childline showed that the charity carried out 19,481 counselling sessions in 2015/16 involving young people who had suicidal thoughts and feelings. There were 18,472 sessions involving self-harm. Reasons behind the self-harm varied from examination stress and problems at school to sexuality and gender identity issues as well as mental health problems.

The National Suicide Prevention Strategy has long recognised self-harm as a sign of potential suicide risk, but the latest progress report now updates its scope to include reducing rates of self-harm as a key target.

It states: “Given the direct link to suicide and increasing concerns about self-harm raised by professionals who work with children and young people, it is timely that we increase our efforts to address this issue.”

The report specifically warns that the latest data also shows a higher prevalence of hospital admissions of girls under-17 for self-harm.

It adds: “The National Strategy in 2012 identified those who self-harm as a high-risk group. It is now time to go further and address self-harm as an issue in its own right and to encourage young people who self-harm to seek support, advice and help. That is why we have expanded the scope of the National Strategy to include self-harm as a new key area for action.”

The report warns that there is a lack of high-quality services focused on tackling self-harm, with only 28 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women currently receiving medical or psychiatric treatment after self-harming.

The report also flags up work it has done to support the development of resources for young people, parents and schools. This includes No Harm Done, a series of films and toolkits for young people, parents and professionals produced last year by Young Minds in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust.

Elsewhere, the report repeats a pledge from prime minister Theresa May that a Green Paper on young people’s mental health will be published this year with new proposals for improving both services and preventative work.

Ms May recently unveiled a range of mental health pledges, including plans to train up a “mental health first aider” in every secondary school.
The report adds: “Complex factors and events may contribute to the death by suicide of children and young people. A recent study … found academic pressures, bereavement, bullying, alcohol or drug misuse and childhood abuse in many cases. More than half of those who died had a history of self-harm and 27 per cent had expressed suicidal thoughts in the week prior to death.

“We will look at the issues affecting young people which may be impacting their mental health such as body image and other pressures from social media, including consideration of the impact this may be having on young women and girls.

“Schools and colleges have a key role to play in promoting good mental health for children and young people. The prime minister announced plans this month to make further progress in relation to children and young people in educational settings, including rolling out mental health first aid in schools and expanding the pilots to establish single points of contacts for mental health to reach even more schools to improve initial support and quick referrals to specialist services.”