Every life is priceless: Honouring World Suicide Prevention Day 2024

Written by M. Suhail Mirza

The issue of suicide (and the related link to tackling mental health challenges) is one close to my heart personally and professionally. This is a global, national, and local issue that affects us all. 

A Global and National Issue  

Globally more than 700,000 people commit suicide each year bringing devastating impacts on their families and friends. Many more attempt suicide. Interestingly 73% of global suicides take place in low- and middle-income countries and it is the third leading cause of death among 15-29-year-olds globally. In England, the Office for National Statistics recently published data showing there were 6069 suicides in England and Wales in 2023, a rate of 11.4 deaths per 100,000 people, the highest rate since 1999. The suicide rates for males and females in England and Wales have reached their highest levels since 1999 and 1994 respectively.

The causes of suicide are complex and multiple factors (including social, psychological, and environmental ones) play a role across a lifetime. It has a non-uniform effect across ages and gender. The Local Government Association, for example, in its report entitled Men's Health: The Lives of Men in our Communities (published August 2024) highlights that four out of every five suicides are by men.  

So, there is no "easy" answer, but great work is being done at multiple levels to tackle this issue. 

Zero Suicide Alliance and Professor Joe Rafferty 

One example is that led by Professor Joe Rafferty CBE, with whom I have had the pleasure of sharing time over the years. A widely respected leader across the NHS he is CEO at Mersey care NHS Foundation Trust (due to retire in October 2024) and his words from 2020 resonate powerfully still "every single death by suicide is a catastrophe that devastates families, friends, colleagues and communities..". 

 Merseycare were the first mental health trust in the country to commit to a zero-suicide policy. He is also one of the founders of the Zero Suicide Alliance (ZSA). As Joe candidly says: "If zero isn’t the right number, then what is?" 

The ZSA, hosted by Mersey Care and funded via Mersey Care's NHS Charity, aims to empower, educate and equip individuals and organisations to support suicide awareness and prevention. It has numerous programmes ranging from research to suicide training tools to support its vision.  This includes giving access to a "suicide data map", an interactive map of England developed together with the NHS Benchmarking Network; the map helps to gain a better view of local community challenges, across over 100 health and social factors related to an increased risk of suicide. 

Joe was one of the speakers at the Zero Suicide 5 Global Summit which took place in June 2024 in Liverpool, an event run in partnership between ZSA and Henry Ford Health. One key message from the summit was the potential importance technology and AI can play in preventing suicide; Joe Rafferty again:  “There can be this negativity about AI technology but at Mersey Care, we’ve already found several ways to incorporate it into our suicide prevention work.....We’re already trialling an internet interceptor on our website where helpful messages automatically pop up if anyone searches for ‘suicide’"

"Changing the Narrative" and the World Health Organisation  

World Suicide Prevention Day was established in 2003 by the International Association for Suicide Prevention working with the WHO. It is 10 years since the WHO published its first world suicide report (2014), and its work recognises the complexity of the causes of suicide and also the role played by conflict, disaster, and violence. 

 The WHO calls for a coordinated approach and in 2021 launched "LIVE LIFE" an initiative with an implementation guide for suicide prevention. This includes evidence-backed recommendations ranging from interacting with the media for responsible reporting of suicide to the importance of fostering socio-emotional life skills in adolescents. 

The theme for World Suicide Prevention Day this year remains "Changing the Narrative on Suicide" and the WHO has issued a call to action to "Start the conversation". The goal here is to remove the stigma around suicide, encourage awareness of it and support open conversations about it.  

With every human life priceless, even sacred, this call to action is one pertinent to Governments globally, national healthcare systems and providers and ultimately to each of one of us; it affects us all.