The first annual report was published outlining progress in implementing the national suicide prevention strategy for England. Death rates from suicide and undetermined injury in the period 2000-2002 fell to 8.9 deaths per 100,000 population, a reduction of 3.2 per cent from the baseline rate in 1995-1997 of 9.2 deaths per 100,000. (The strategy target is to help reduce suicides to 7.4 deaths per 100,000 population by 2009-11.)
Source: National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England: Annual Report on progress 2003, National Institute for Mental Health in England (0113 254 5000)
Links: Report (pdf) | NIMHE press release | DH press release | Rethink press release | Guardian report
Date: 2003-Dec
An article updated previous analyses of suicide with population estimates revised following the 2001 Census, and extended them to 2001. Of all sex and age groups, young adult men (those aged 15-44) had had the highest suicide rate since the late 1990s. Among adults, young adult women (aged 15-44) had the lowest suicide rate.
Source: Anita Brock and Clare Griffiths, 'Trends in suicide by method in England and Wales, 1979 to 2001', Health Statistics Quarterly 20, Winter 2003, Office for National Statistics, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Article (pdf)
Date: 2003-Oct
An article analysed a sample of suicides in England and Wales by those who had been in contact with mental health services in the year before death. In total 282 patients from ethnic minorities died by suicide 6 per cent of all patient suicides. Ethnic minority patients were more likely to have been unemployed than white patients, and to have had a history of violence and recent non-compliance. Black Caribbean patients had the highest rates of schizophrenia (74 per cent), unemployment, living alone, previous violence and drug misuse. The authors concluded that, in order to reduce the number of suicides by ethnic minority patients, services needed to address the complex health and social needs of people with severe mental illness.
Source: Isabelle Hunt et al., 'Suicides in ethnic minorities within 12 months of contact with mental health services: National clinical survey', British Journal of Psychiatry, August 2003
Links: Abstract | RCP press release
Date: 2003-Aug
A report said that 1 in 10 young offenders had deliberately hurt themselves, and 11 per cent admitted that they had contemplated suicide.
Source: Speaking Out, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (0870 120 7400)
Links: YJB press release
Date: 2003-Jul
A study found that people who deliberately harmed themselves had a significant and persistent risk of suicide, although this varied markedly between genders and age groups. The authors concluded that a reduction in the risk of suicide following deliberate self-harm should be a key element in national suicide prevention strategies.
Source: Keith Hawton, Daniel Zahl and Rosamund Weatherall, 'Suicide following deliberate self-harm: long-term follow-up of patients who presented to a general hospital', British Journal of Psychiatry, June 2003
Links: Abstract
Date: 2003-Jun
A report made a series of recommendations for reducing the number of suicides by prisoners.
Source: Jenny Shaw, Louis Appleby and Denise Baker, Safer Prisons, National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (01772 406631)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2003-May
Research found that 10 per cent of teenagers aged 15-16 have deliberately harmed themselves at some stage.
Source: Youth and Self harm: Perspectives, Centre for Suicide Research/University of Oxford, available from Samaritans (020 8394 8300)
Links: Summary (pdf)
Date: 2003-Mar
A campaign group report said that the number of men, women and children deliberately injuring themselves in prisons in England and Wales is more than three times higher than previously thought. It said that as many as 21,000 incidents of self-injury take place in prisons each year.
Source: Suicide and Self-harm Prevention: Management of self-injury in prison, Howard League for Penal Reform (020 7249 7373)
Links: Press release
Date: 2003-Mar
Successive post-war generations of men appear to have an increased risk of suicide, which they carry with them into middle age, according to a new study.
Source: Research by David Gunnell (Bristol University) et al., reported in British Journal of Psychiatry, February 2003
Links: RCPsych press release
Date: 2003-Feb