Suicide in Men: Analysis of UK Data and Preventive Initiatives

This report provides an analysis of the increasing suicide rates among men in the United Kingdom, highlighting it as a significant national psychological issue. It examines national and local data, revealing a concerning rise in male suicides compared to the general population, and explores contributing factors such as job loss, divorce, and restrictions on child access. The report emphasizes the crucial role of Community Mental Health Nurse Practitioners in identifying individuals at high risk, providing referrals, and bridging the gap between social and health sectors. Furthermore, it discusses the implementation of the Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Competence Framework to reduce self-harm cases, ensuring confidentiality while addressing these sensitive issues. The conclusion underscores the importance of community practice nurses' adherence to this framework and the establishment of professional networks to improve intervention and prevention efforts. This report also emphasizes the importance of various government programs and awareness campaigns to tackle this issue effectively.

SUICIDE IN MEN

Table of Contents
SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
NATIONAL AND LOCAL DATA.................................................................................................4
WHY SUICIDE RATE IN MEN IS HIGH.....................................................................................5
PREVENTIVE INITIATIVES TO REDUCE THE CASES OF SUICIDE....................................5
ROLE OF COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH NURSE PRACTITIONERS..............................6
THE SELF HARM AND SUICIDE PREVENTION COMPETENCE FRAMEWORK:
ADULTS AND OLDER ADULTS.................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

SUMMARY
In the recent time in the United Kingdom the cases of suicide has been significantly
increased due to which it has become a national psychological issue. The government is
continuously working to discourage these cases of suicide at local as well as national level by
introducing various programmes. There was a study which was done upon these suicide cases
and it was found that among the general population these cases of suicide are deteriorating but
there is an increase in these cases among men. There are various factors due to which this
increase has been seen such as loss of jobs, divorce cases and also imposition of certain
restrictions upon meeting their children post divorce. It is a general perception that a man is more
strong emotionally as well as physically but the study shows that mental condition of a man also
majorly impacts while taking such steps of suicide. This report shows that how the Community
Nurse Practitioners are playing a major role to overcome this hurdle. Basically what they do is
that to identify those people who are having a high amount of risk of taking such steps. Also they
focus upon referring them to various professionals, acting as a bridge between social and health
sector by ensuring that the programmes introduced by the government are efficiently
implemented.
This will lead in creating a network of various professionals who will tell about the
different and complex stress which contributes in taking these steps of suicide. It is also
necessary for preventing the cases of suicide and implementing the various programmes of
government institutions by promotion of help seeking behaviour. This report also focus upon the
role of community nurse practitioners in the society in using Prevention Competence Framework
Guide so that cases of self harm and suicides can be reduced. The Prevention Competence
Framework ensures the various significant practices such as ways of achieving multi professional
and multi agency working in a real life. Also this framework has been designed in such a way so
that a balance should be maintain between the confidentiality of people as well as ensuring that
people who are facing such self harm issues must not take these drastic steps. The conclusion of
this report is that community practice nurses works as per this framework while doing their
suicide prevention efforts. Also this framework is used while setting various professional
networks in the different government agencies. It will positively impact the working of

community nurse practitioners which will lead in activating these professional networks
immediately.
MAIN BODY
INTRODUCTION
Suicide can be defined as an act through which a person end their own life by some
unnatural means. It is such a phenomenon which will act as a trauma for the whole family or the
community where this act of self harm has been committed. In the United Kingdom various
studies has been done through which it was found that there is decrease in the number of suicide
cases but it is also a fact that the suicide cases among men has been increased considerably. In
this report it will be examined that what are the patterns of suicide in the UK and what are the
various factors which leads to these self harm acts. Further in this report the focus will be upon
that how to prevent the suicide among the men. Here in this report it will also be discussed that
how community nurse practitioners plays major role in implementing various strategies for
preventing the suicide with the help of inter professional working. In addition to this the report
will also focus upon the role of “Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Competence
Framework(Health Education England, 2018) that how this framework is helping in reducing
the number of suicides in UK. At the end there will be certain concluding remarks and
recommendations which can be useful for community nurse practitioners in ensuring that these
acts of suicide must be vanished from the community.
NATIONAL AND LOCAL DATA
The data which has been taken through the National Statistics of Suicide shows that
there exists major variations while committing the act of suicide and the risk factors associated
with it. In the year 2019 the World Health Organisation has published a report which states that
around 800000 people every year commits suicide globally(Bell, Mok and Pirkis, 2018). Out of
these 6507 people have committed suicide in United Kingdom. As the number of these suicide
acts are highest in Scotland whereas in England the number is lower. In both these regions the
suicide rate is 16.1 and 10.3 per 1 lac people respectively. It indicates that the geographical
location is a leading factor in commission of these acts. Whereas the statistics shows that cases
of suicides among men has increased in all the areas irrespective of their geographical location.
In England the rate of women committing the suicide is 4.9 per 1 lac whereas rate of men is 15.9

per 1 lac. In England also the cities have various figures related to the suicide cases of men as per
their geographical location. In London it is 13.8 per 1 lac while in the other cities such as
Humber & Yorkshire the suicide rate is 19.0 per 1 lac(Oude Voshaar, van der Veen and Kapur,
2016).
WHY SUICIDE RATE IN MEN IS HIGH
In the year 2008 the World Health Organisation has initiated a plan named Mental
Health Gap Intervention Plan through which the act of suicide has been given a public health
priority. There are various factors which has been reported by National Health Service England
in the year 2018 which lead in forcing men to commit suicide such as divorce, losing jobs,
certain restrictions on meeting children post divorce, addiction to drugs and loneliness. There are
various risk factors which are directly associated when a person's mind thinks about committing
suicide such as depression, any mental trauma, various personality attributes and addiction of
drugs. It is a proven fact that act of suicide is committed by only those persons who are facing
certain mental disorders due to any reason irrespective of their gender(Cassidy and Rodgers,
2017).
PREVENTIVE INITIATIVES TO REDUCE THE CASES OF SUICIDE
The government has set a target regarding reducing the number of cases of suicide by 10
percent in the year 2020-2021 and for this certain recommendations and suggestions has been
given by The Five Year Plan(Vision) for mental well being. Also the government has provided
the extra funding in the year 2018-2019 to those areas which have seen the majority of suicide
cases in England so that various response programmes related to suicide prevention can be
efficiently implemented. The various programmes related to suicide prevention includes
involving the identified individuals who are likely to commit such act to primary care and
focussing upon implementing different awareness programmes on a large platform. These
programmes also includes introducing various activities for male gender such as athletics and
sports events because these events will act as therapy which will reduce the stress and improves
the mental condition of a person(Dhingra, Klonsky and Tapola, 2019). Also the 5 year plan has
also recommended that there must be certain services and care for these self harm victims in not
only emergency clinics but also for their mental well being. The cities such as Bassetlaw and
South Yorkshire has collaborated with some local organisations in order to train people for

various programmes related to primary care assistance and to ensure that the cases of self harm
has been minimised in the men.
ROLE OF COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH NURSE PRACTITIONERS
These Community Mental Health Nurse Practitioners plays a very important role in
identifying those people who are suffering from mental health issue so that early intervention and
proper assessment can be made in order to refer them to appropriate expert of mental health
services. These mental health nurses should cooperate with the general practitioners and various
other professionals of healthcare in order to conduct various refresher training so that knowledge
and their skills can be improved. Also it is the duty of these nurses to educate general public that
how to support an individual who is going through some mental stress by managing the risk in an
appropriate manner. If later on it is found that the person is suffering through any mental
condition it must be ensured that the person is having access to non pharmacological and
pharmacological interventions. For example these nurse practitioners should be active in
conducting regular medication reviews of those where it has been prescribed regarding the
pharmacological therapy(Katz, Bolton and Sareen, 2016). It will also include the perception of
that person regarding this therapy and benefits and risks associated with it. Also in this various
barriers which will come while using this therapy should be analysed. Also it is the duty of the
community nurse practitioner to facilitate multidisciplinary and multi agency interventions in
order to prevent the person from self harm if any individual is showing the intentions of
committing suicide which has been prescribed by National Institute for Health and
Excellence,2019
THE SELF HARM AND SUICIDE PREVENTION COMPETENCE
FRAMEWORK: ADULTS AND OLDER ADULTS
The Self harm and Suicide Prevention Competence Framework: Adults and Older
Adults (Health Education England, 2018) tells about the importance of the approach which is
multi agency and multi disciplinary in nature in order to provide with the information regarding
practices of community nurse practitioners. Further in addition this framework also lead in
providing various examples to the nurses with illustrations of person centred and not protocol
driven care. For instance in the framework it a major guidance that there is compulsion of
sharing some information but there must also be confidentiality to adults before engagement in

care process(Michail and Tait, 2016). These guidance are made so that the nurses should
respect the rights of a person related to their confidentiality and autonomy. It should also be
ensured that the condition of the person should be conveyed to the health professional but
confidentiality should be maintained.
CONCLUSION
By the above research it can be concluded that suicide cases among men are increasing
day by day and the community nurse practitioners must enhance their knowledge and skills so
that they can able to identify risks of self harm and can intervene. It is also recommended that the
local government institutions must ensure the cooperation with the healthcare professionals in
order to improve awareness against this act of suicide and certain therapies must be applied. It is
also suggested that the community nurse practitioners should follow the guidelines given by
“Self Harm and Suicide Prevention Competence Framework: Adults and Older Adults”.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bell, J., Mok, K. and Pirkis, J., 2018. Suicide-related internet use among suicidal young people
in the UK: Characteristics of users, effects of use, and barriers to offline help-seeking.
Archives of Suicide Research. 22(2). pp.263-277.
Cassidy, S. and Rodgers, J., 2017. Understanding and prevention of suicide in autism.The Lancet
Psychiatry. 4(6). p.e11.
Dhingra, K., Klonsky, E. D. and Tapola, V., 2019. An empirical test of the Three‐Step Theory of
suicide in UK University students. Suicide and Life‐Threatening Behavior. 49(2).
pp.478-487.
Katz, C., Bolton, J. and Sareen, J., 2016. The prevalence rates of suicide are likely
underestimated worldwide: why it matters. Social psychiatry and psychiatric
epidemiology. 51(1). pp.125-127.
Michail, M. and Tait, L., 2016. Exploring general practitioners’ views and experiences on
suicide risk assessment and management of young people in primary care: a qualitative
study in the UK. BMJ open. 6(1).
Oude Voshaar, R. C., van der Veen, D. C. and Kapur, N., 2016. Suicide in late‐life depression
with and without comorbid anxiety disorders. International journal of geriatric
psychiatry. 31(2). pp.146-152.