The Welsh Assembly Government published a five-year action plan to reduce suicide and self-harm. The plan was designed to raise awareness of suicide and self-harm, and to remove the stigma that was associated with emotional and mental health problems.
Source: Talk to Me: The national action plan to reduce suicide and self harm in Wales 2009-2014, Welsh Assembly Government (029 2082 5111)
Links: Plan | NHS Wales press release
Date: 2009-Nov
An article examined trends in the suicide rate among young people between 1997 and 2003, and what proportion had been in contact with mental health services prior to their death.
Source: Amy Cheung, 'Suicide rate in young people in the UK declined from 1997 to 2003', Evidence-Based Mental Health, Volume 12 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2009-Oct
The Director of Public Prosecutions published (following a Court ruling) an interim policy statement identifying those factors that would be taken into account when he considered whether prosecutions would be brought in cases of assisted suicide.
Source: Interim Policy for Prosecutors in Respect of Cases of Assisted Suicide, Crown Prosecution Service (020 7796 8000)
Links: Statement | CPS press release | CofE press release | SPUC press release | Conservative Party press release | BBC report | Community Care report | Guardian report | Pulse report
Date: 2009-Sep
An annual report examined suicide and homicide data for people with mental illness in England and Wales. The number of people killed by individuals suffering from mental illness increased between 1997 and 2005, and there was also an increase in the number of homicides committed by people with mental illness at the time of the offence – from 54 in 1997 to over 70 in 2004 and 2005. But there had been a fall in suicide by mental health patients overall, and a continued fall in suicide by in-patients.
Source: Annual Report: England and Wales – July 2009, National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness/University of Manchester (0161 2750700)
Links: Report | Manchester University press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Jul
An annual report on suicide prevention in England said that the suicide rate for 2007 was the lowest recorded, at 7.5 deaths per 100,000 population. There continued to be a sustained fall in the rate of suicide among young men under the age of 35. There had also been a further reduction in suicides among mental health in-patients, from 216 in 1997 to 136 in 2006; and in suicides in prisons, from 65 in 1997 to 60 in 2008.
Source: National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England: Annual Report on Progress 2008, National Mental Health Development Unit/National Health Service (0113 254 5000)
Links: Report | NMHDU press release | DH press release
Date: 2009-Jul
The Court of Appeal rejected a request by a woman with multiple sclerosis to clarify the law on assisted suicide. It declined to rule whether her husband would face prosecution for accompanying her to a clinic in Switzerland – where assisted suicide was not illegal.
Source: Purdy, R (on the application of) v Director of Public Prosecutions and others, Court of Appeal 19 February 2009
Links: Text of judgement | Guardian report | BBC report
Date: 2009-Feb
Suicide rates in both men and women in the United Kingdom continued to fall in 2007, reaching the lowest level since 1991. The suicide rate for men in 2007 was 16.8 per 100,000 population, while the rate for women was 5.0 per 100,000.
Source: Press release 27 January 2009, Office for National Statistics (0845 601 3034)
Links: ONS press release
Date: 2009-Jan