A SUICIDE prevention action plan for St Helens is set to be approved to help reduce the rising number of deaths seen in recent years.

The People’s Board, which is made up of representatives from various organisations, will discuss the 2018 Suicide Prevention Action Plan at St Helens town hall next Wednesday.

To help address the rise in suicides, St Helens has established a multi-agency Suicide Prevention Partnership, which is led by Public Health.

It also includes representation from St Helens Council, St Helens CCG, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Merseyside Police, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Merseyside Probation Service and voluntary sector organisations such as the Samaritans.

“The Suicide Prevention Action Plan is very much a partnership action,” a council report says.

“It builds upon the local intelligence and has been developed in line with national guidance for suicide prevention, and it takes account of the priorities identified in the Cheshire and Merseyside ‘No More’ Zero Suicide Strategy.

“Zero suicide is our collective ambition for St Helens. We want to challenge and transform cultural attitudes to suicide. Suicide is not inevitable.

“We want everyone to be clear that suicide is preventable, that everyone can make a difference, and we want behaviours and attitudes to change.”

The plan is divided into four key areas – prevention, safer care, support and bereavement from suicide and intelligence.

Numerous actions are detailed within the four areas, some on-going and others still in the planning stages.

The action plan comes after it was revealed that St Helens has the fourth highest suicide rate in England.

Since 2014, the local authorities across Cheshire and Merseyside have completed a joint suicide audit of coroner records of suicides and attempted suicides.

The information includes demographic details, methods used, place of death, risk factors and access to health services.

Between 2014-16, the rate of death by suicide and undetermined injury was at 15.8 per 100,000 population, a significant increase on the local rate for 2008-10 of nine per 100,000.

Over the three-year period, there were 73 deaths, with 29 of those in 2016.

Overall, men are about three times as likely as women to complete a suicide, with the highest rates among men aged 45 to 59 and 30 to 44 years.

Risk factors can vary in frequency according to age.

The most common risk factors in people aged under 25 years were drugs and alcohol misuse.

For people aged 25 to 44 it is a mental health diagnosis and for those aged 45 years and over it is physical ill health.

Also, in the month before their death, around half of people in the audit were recorded as having visited a primary care or mental health service.

“Suicide can affect people from all backgrounds and every individual circumstance is different,” the report says.

“However, there are inequalities linked to social deprivation and some groups complete suicide at higher rates and there are known factors that can increase the risk such as a previous suicide attempt or a history of self-harm.”

Other key risk factors identified in the 2017 audit included unemployment, living alone, and physical or mental health problems.

The report recommends that The People’s Board approve the 2018 Suicide Prevention Action Plan and its priorities.