Suicide ‘A Personal Perspective - Healthwatch Report

This summary relates to the findings given to Healthwatch Lincolnshire by 114 people who have either had thoughts of suicide, with the aim of ending their life, family and friends who have been directly impacted by someone ending their life by suicide and professionals who have come into contact with suicidal people.

As a result of our evaluation, the following themes were identified:

• Nearly half of people who had experienced suicide and those that were experiencing suicide in the ‘here and now’, felt there were no services in Lincolnshire that would help prevent suicide.  For clarity this is not that there were no services, but no services that would help prevent suicide.
• Consistently we heard the need for easier access and availability of service provision in a coordinated way, at the right time.  With the aim of avoiding the real or perceived gaps created by commissioning and disjointed working across the Health, Care and VCS sectors.
• 49% of people had something positive to share when they had accessed services, this positivity was predominantly around non-NHS services.  A further 51% cited negative experiences across all service types.
• Although services might be available ‘on paper’, access to and appropriateness of those services seemed to be the key factor for reporting that no services were available.  People told us that they felt like they were being pushed from pillar to post. Having inconsistent and unreliable services and delays in support and care packages, drained resilience and belief in localised care.
• We have heard as a Healthwatch for many years (from system providers) that there are no major issues related to time delays in accessing services, however throughout the survey, respondents cited delays and waiting lists compounding the issues of mental health and suicide, the apparent lack of intermediary support between initial contact and treatment was raised.

You can read the full report by clicking the link below.