Suicide Prevention in Remote and Rural Areas

Stakeholder Event October 30th 2007

In 2002, the Scottish Executive launched chooselife, a ten year strategy and action plan to reduce suicide in Scotland by 20% by 2013. A decision was taken in 2005 to award additional funds over two years (2006 – 2008) to chooselife, Highland, a region which has one of the highest suicide rates in Scotland (Stark et al 2002). The aim of this investment was to ensure that work, specifically focused on the problem of suicide in remote and rural areas, was initiated.

This report provides an overview of some of the recent research that relates to suicide in remote and rural areas and describes the background to the ‘Suicide in Remote and Rural Areas Stakeholder Event’, which was an important part of this work. It offered an opportunity to hear from some of the experts in the field and for those responsible for the planning, development & delivery of services in remote & rural areas, to inform future priorities. A national working group will be convened in order to take forward the priorities identified by participants through workshop discussion and individual feedback forms. A summary of this information is also provided in this report.

The programme comprised of four presentations followed by opportunities for group and plenary discussions. The presentations focused on the epidemiology of suicide in a rural context, the role of the church, the experiences of people with mental health problems in terms of inclusion and exclusion and the provision of crisis intervention via the internet (see appendix A). The Power Point files for each presentation and a copy of this report are available on www.chooselifehighland.co.uk and also www.chooselife.net.

Overall participants identified the need to focus on vulnerable and high risk groups and on early intervention with children, young people and families. The use of creative and innovative approaches to suicide prevention was welcomed as was the diversity of the presentations included in the programme. Research that focused on the evaluation of what works was considered to be a priority as was using the right methods (e.g. social marketing) to reach vulnerable groups. Common themes emerged throughout the day e.g. the impact of stigma, culture, inequalities and the need for long term investment in this work to ensure that suicide prevention became mainstreamed into existing services through policy & practice in order to ensure sustainability.