Toolkits to help employers prevent suicides

Public Health England (PHE) has joined forces with Business in the Community and the Samaritans to produce toolkits for employers on how to prevent suicide and how to minimise the impact if it does happen. They come in response to an Office of National Statistics’ (ONS) analysis – commissioned by PHE – that breaks down national suicide rates by occupation for the first time in England. It showed that, while suicides are far less common for females than males, for women, nursing had a high risk of suicide (23% above the national average) while both male and female care workers had a suicide risk that was almost twice the national average. The toolkits include advice on steps employers can take action to prevent suicides, and to support them and their teams when responding to the death of an employee caused by suicide. The toolkits can be downloaded from the PHE website.