Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Suicide Prevention Strategy

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025-2029 sets out our shared commitment to reducing suicide, improving support for people who self-harm or attempt suicide, and ensuring appropriate support is available for those bereaved by suicide. The strategy has been developed using local data, evidence, stakeholder feedback and the experiences of people with lived experience.

Priorities for 2025-2029

• Equip professionals and the public with the skills and awareness to prevent suicide.
• Focus as a system on improving the treatment and support for people with affective disorders to prevent suicides.
• Promote awareness and action within our system to prevent suicide in other priority risk groups.
• Use data to drive preventive action and support following suicide attempts and suspected suicides.
• Improve the capacity and coverage of suicide bereavement support services to support more people bereaved by suicide.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Suicide Prevention Strategy3.44MB–pdf

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Content warning and mental health crisis support

This strategy contains frequent references to suicide, self-harm, and associated risk factors. Please seek advice and support if you feel affected by any of the issues discussed. Professionals and members of the public should be aware of how someone in mental health crisis can seek support locally by using these mental health helplines or using the Keep Your Head webpage:

Executive summary

Suicide prevention and the promotion of good mental health is a key priority in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. On average more than one person dies by suicide every week in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough area and every single death is a tragic loss which has devastating impact of families, friends, colleagues, communities and services. Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.

The updated Suicide Prevention Strategy for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough outlines a collective, system-wide commitment to reducing suicide, enhancing support for individuals who self-harm or attempt suicide, and improving care for those bereaved by suicide. It is informed by national policy, local suicide data, lived experience, and the most recent needs assessment to define clear priorities for coordinated action. A multi‑agency suicide prevention group brings partners together to better understand the local factors contributing to suicide and work collaboratively to prevent future deaths.

Current context

Nationally, suicide prevention efforts are guided by the suicide prevention strategy for England 2023–2028, which emphasises reducing suicide rates, improving support after self-harm, and supporting people bereaved by suicide. It identifies eight priority areas including improved data, support for priority groups, reducing access to means, and addressing risk factors such as physical illness, financial difficulty, gambling, substance misuse, isolation, and domestic abuse.

Locally, suicide rates align with the England and East of England average. Risk factors identified include being male and middle-aged, living alone, unemployment, mental health diagnoses (particularly depression and anxiety), self-harm history, substance misuse, and relationship/financial challenges.

Vision

Every person in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has access to the right care and support —from the mental health system and their communities—to ensure they do not die by suicide.

Aims and ambitions

Aligned with national aims, the strategy seeks to:

• Reduce suicide rates locally.
• Improve support for people who self-harm or attempt suicide.
• Improve support for those bereaved by suicide.

This strategy continues the existing ambition that:

Every person in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has access to the right care and support, from both the mental health system and their communities, to ensure that they do not die by suicide.

Values/key principles

The strategy is grounded in three core principles, continuing from the previous plan:

• Collaboration across services and joined‑up system working.
• Communication and shared learning through improved information sharing and reflective practice.
• Co‑production with people with lived experience of suicide, self-harm, and bereavement.

Strategic priorities (2025-2029)

The Suicide Prevention Strategy will focus on the following five priority areas for action:

Equip professionals and the public with skills and awareness

Expand training, implement NHSE “Staying Safe from Suicide” guidance, improve trauma‑informed practice, and enhance public suicide prevention awareness campaigns.

Improve treatment and support for people with affective disorders

Strengthen system collaboration to ensure evidence‑based treatment for depression and bipolar disorder, address treatment availability, and implement NCISH recommendations around non‑adherence and post‑discharge follow‑up.

Prevent suicide in priority risk groups

Focus on neurodivergent people, domestic abuse victims, people with substance misuse needs, young people (particularly young men), middle‑aged men, and people bereaved by suicide.

Use data to drive prevention and follow‑up

Strengthen Real‑Time Suicide Surveillance, include recording self‑harm and suicide attempts and improve data capture and sharing; evaluate interventions more robustly.

Improve suicide bereavement support capacity and coverage

Secure funding, expand services in Peterborough (filling the CYP gap), and ensure support is available for health and care staff affected by suicide.

National Suicide Prevention Strategy

In September 2023, the UK Government released the Suicide prevention strategy for England: 2023 to 2028, updated from the Suicide Prevention Strategy that had been in place since 2012. The strategy aims to prevent self-harm and suicide and to:

• reduce suicide rates over the next 5 years
• improve support for people who have self-harmed
• improve support for people bereaved by suicide

Data, evidence and engagement with experts (including those with lived experience) have identified eight priority areas for action to achieve these aims, summarised in Table 1. These are accompanied by a detailed action plan of over 100 actions for the Government, the NHS, wider local public services, businesses and community groups. Table 1: National Suicide Prevention Strategy priorities areas for action.

Apart from the identified target groups, the strategy also mentions several key groups for whom a more comprehensive understanding of trends in mental health and suicide rates will be important in the coming five-year window:

• occupational groups;
• autistic people;
• people affected by domestic abuse;
• people experiencing harmful gambling;
• ethnic minority groups including people who are Gypsy, Roma, or Travellers (GRT);
• refugees and asylum seekers;
• and people who are LGBTQ+.

The strategy emphasises that prevention and early intervention are key, starting with society’s values to break down the shame and stigma that can deter men from seeking help, and offering young people opportunity and hope.

National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH)

The 2025 annual report from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) provides findings relating to people aged 10 and above (in line with ONS) who died by suicide between 2012 and 2022 across the UK (and Jersey). It includes findings relating to the number of people under mental health care.

Patient suicide numbers: There were 18,670 patients who died by suicide (i.e. people in contact with mental health services within 12 months of suicide) in the UK (and Jersey) in 2012-2022, which represents 26% of all suicide deaths, an average of 1,697 deaths per year.

Social and clinical characteristics: A high proportion of patients who died by suicide showed evidence of isolation and social adversity;nearly half (47%) lived alone, and a sixth (17%) had recently experienced serious financial problems. Suicide related internet use was reported in 8% of patients.

• A history of alcohol (47%) or drug (38%) misuse was common. Over half (55%) had a comorbid (i.e. additional) mental health diagnosis. The majority (62%) of patients who died had a history of self-harm. The proportion who had recently (<3 months) self-harmed (31%) has increased over the report period.

Bipolar disorder: 8% of all patient suicides, an average of 136 deaths per year, were by patients with bipolar disorder. The average number in 2019-2022 increased by 19% compared to the average number in 2015-2018.

• Patients with bipolar disorder were more often female (47%), living alone (52%) and older, with more aged 45-64 (50%), than other patients who died by suicide.
• Overall, a minority (39%) were receiving lithium treatment/mood stabiliser treatment and only 12% were receiving psychological treatment. More patients with bipolar disorder were non-adherent with medication (15%) and had experienced drug side effects (12%).

Missed contact / non-adherence with treatment: 22% of all patient suicides were by patients who missed their last contact with mental health services, an average of 347 deaths per year.

• 12% of all patient suicides were in patients who were non-adherent with drug treatment, an average of 182 deaths per year.
• Missed contact was often accompanied by clinical morbidity (e.g. additional psychiatric diagnoses, self-harm, alcohol and/or drug misuse), and socioeconomic adversity (e.g. unemployment, financial problems, living alone).
• Services had made contact with the patient’s family in 28% of those who had missed their last appointment.
• The majority (63%) of non-adherent patients had severe mental illness. Half (47%) were prescribed oral antipsychotics. Reasons for non-adherence were reported to be the patient’s impaired insight into their illness (31%), side effects (15%) and lack of effectiveness (13%).

Recent bereavement: 8% of all patient suicides were by patients who had been recently (<3 months) bereaved, an average of 119 deaths per year. The number increased over two-fold in 2016-2022 compared to in 2012-2015, presumably due to better recognition by clinicians.

• Patients bereaved were more often female (40%) and they were more likely to be older, widowed (20%) and living alone (54%). A third (34%) had a primary diagnosis of depression. More died on or near the date of a family member or friend’s death anniversary compared to other patients (7% v. 1%). In 2020-2022, half (51% v. 35%) had reported suffering from insomnia and a third (35% v. 30%) had recently misused alcohol.

As well as recommendations for acute mental health care settings regarding ward safety and recent discharges, the NCISH annual report provided the following recommendations:

• Bipolar disorder - many patients with bipolar disorder who die by suicide appear not to be receiving optimal treatment. This should be provided in line with NICE guidance, including lithium treatment and consideration of psychological interventions, as a key suicide prevention measure.
• Missed contact / non-adherence with treatment - non-receipt of planned care is a crucial precursor of patient suicide. Services should place priority on follow-up efforts for patients losing contact with services or who are non-adherent with medication. These patients have multiple clinical and social problems that are likely to add to risk and that need to be addressed in their care plan. Involvement of the patient’s family or carers should form part of engagement efforts.
• Recent bereavement - clinicians should be aware that bereavement may add to suicide risk and be alert to symptoms such as insomnia and alcohol misuse. Enquiring about significant dates such as anniversaries of deaths should be a routine part of assessment. Services should make personalised bereavement support available.

The NCISH national conference which launched the annual report also noted the growing importance of domestic abuse as a risk factor for suicide, as reflected in the national strategy, reporting that 20-25% of patients who die by suicide have a history of domestic violence.

'Staying Safe from Suicide' National Guidance

In April 2025, NHS England published new national best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management, titled ‘Staying Safe from Suicide’. The guidance provides principles which should be followed by all mental health practitioners (with relevance to wider professional groups). It promotes a shift away from risk prediction or stratification towards a more holistic, person-centred approach. It recommends methods based on understanding each person’s situation and managing their safety.

Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2022-2030

The Suicide Prevention Strategy has previously sat alongside a Public Mental Health Strategy and a Children and Young People’s Mental Health Strategy, and contributes to the implementation of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy’s Priority 4 to ‘promote early intervention and prevention measures to improve mental health and wellbeing.’

Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-2025

The previous C&P Suicide Prevention Strategy 2022-2025 was informed by a number of pieces of work, including the previous local suicide prevention strategy, the 2012 national suicide prevention strategy, and the LifeSpan model of community-based suicide prevention. In addition, many of the priorities and actions were directly informed by the availability of funding as part of the NHS England suicide prevention transformation programme. Delivery of the2022-2025 strategy was divided into six priority areas:

In 2024, an evaluation of the three years of suicide prevention activity was undertaken, which was an opportunity to learn about current approaches towards reducing the risk of suicide locally. Key findings have been summarised in Table 2 below. The Suicide Prevention Strategy was reviewed against the ‘Suicide Prevention at Regional/Local Level: Self-Evaluation Instrument’ (SUPRESE) evaluation tool, which allows local Integrated Care Systems to assess their suicide prevention strategies against 21 metrics for effectiveness, measuring full and partial implementation. Our Suicide Prevention Strategy scored 43 out of 57, with identified areas for improvement being:

• greater resources,
• Improved treatment and aftercare for people who have self-harmed,
• and community engagement to address stigma around self-harm and suicide.

Table 2: C&P Suicide Prevention Strategy Evaluation Summary

The evaluation made a number of recommendations that suicide prevention in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough should be:

1.Informed - understanding our local population is essential The original suicide prevention strategy was written with very little local context in mind, due to the lack of available data. In subsequent years, the development of local suicide audits, and the continuing enhancement of the Real-Time Suicide Surveillance system, has enabled working in a much more informed manner, delivering targeted work where it is likely to have the greatest impact. Investing time and energy into understanding the narrative elements leading to somebody taking their life not only better informs our approach regarding existing services, but also gives insight into the impact that certain life circumstances can have on people. If we only focus on mental health services and supporting people when they are already in crisis, in many cases this is too late. Understanding and addressing the wider determinants of suicide risk are vital to an effective approach.

2.Compassionate - be led by experts by lived experience Co-production with people with lived experience should be embedded into all suicide prevention work moving forwards, from strategy development through to service design and delivery. Suicide remains a complex issue to navigate and often commissioners, clinicians and other professionals may have an idea of what might help people, but those affected by suicide and suicidal thoughts may have a completely different approach.

3.Flexible – offer support in a variety of formats Some of the most effective pieces of work throughout this programme have been the result of offering flexibility in our approach. Whether that is producing resources in a variety of formats, or offering training at a time and location that best suits time-poor colleagues, the easier we can make it for people to engage with suicide prevention, the more likely they are to do so. However, there have been some important audiences for whom the training offer has not necessarily met their needs, for example GPs and primary care colleagues, who are well-placed to deliver effective suicide prevention care. This flexibility applies to both frontline professionals and commissioners. It is important when commissioning suicide prevention work to recognise that some areas are harder to engage than others.

4.Sustainable – Ensure funding for suicide prevention is maintained, if not increased One of the biggest limitations for this programme has been the short-term nature of funding. Throughout the course of the Wave 4 programme, due to the knowledge that three years of funding was guaranteed, project leads and commissioners were able to plan their approach well in advance and ensure continuity of care for service users. Towards the end of the programme, considerable time and resource was given by project leads and commissioners to ensure continued funding.

In addition to sustained funding, the increased learning from the suicide prevention programme has identified important needs in the county that would require significant investment to address. Key initiatives that would benefit the system but require additional investment include:

• Support following a suicide attempt service
• Suicide bereavement support for children and young people service
• Service supporting those going through a relationship breakdown

Mental health needs assessment

The Suicide and Self-Harm chapter of the Mental Health Needs Assessment was completed earlier this year and provides a comprehensive summary of the latest local and national data, evidence and stakeholder views on self-harm and suicide prevention.

Suicidal ideation

• From national data, it is estimated that a fifth of adults (20.6%) had thought of taking their own life at some point in their lives (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 2014). There were no national estimates available for children and young people.
• Nationally, key risk factors were living alone, being out of work, receiving benefits (twothirds of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) recipients had suicidal thoughts (66.4%) and approaching half (43.2%) had made a suicide attempt at some point).
• There was no local data for estimating the prevalence of suicidal ideation in C&P as a whole, although from local Liaison Psychiatry data, a high proportion of A&E attendances for self-injurious behaviour related to suicidal ideation.

Suicide attempts

• From national data, it is estimated that one adult in fifteen (6.7%) had made a suicide attempt at some point in their life (APMS 2014).
• Despite men being more likely than women to die from suicide, women were more likely to report having ever attempted suicide (APMS 2014).
• Locally, the rate of section 136 orders has significantly declined in C&P. Females aged 10-19 were 3.5 times more likely to be placed under s136 compared to their male counterparts, unlike national trends. Moreover, the gender disparity has widened over time, with females constituting an increasingly larger proportion of s136 orders.

Deaths from suicide

• In 2022, there were 65 local suicide deaths, a crude rate of 8.21 per 100,000 people, aligning with the England average. This rate remained consistent from the previous year, 2021, with 65 deaths (8.21 crude rate), and was slightly higher in 2020 with 70 deaths (8.84 crude rate).
• The local suicide audit reveals that suicides generally do not have a single cause but are the result of a complex interaction of factors. The most common risk factors that could be determined based on coroner files were:
  • Demographics and current life circumstance – male, middle-aged, lived alone, separated, or unemployed.
  • Mental Health history – the majority had a formal mental health diagnosis (60%); depression and anxiety were the most common diagnoses for those where it was recorded
  • Social and Economic factors - relationship breakdowns, work, and financial issues
  • 45% had a history of self-harm
  • 44% involved drugs or alcohol
  • 28% reported ongoing physical health issues
  • 15% had adverse childhood experiences
  • 15% had contact with the criminal justice system
  • 10% involved domestic abuse
  • 10% were believed to be neurodivergent (including autism and ADHD)
  • 7.5% involved bereavement

Local stakeholder survey

A survey of local stakeholders identified the following strengths and gaps in service provision:

• Service Clarity and Support: The survey revealed highest ratings for the clarity of where to refer and the quality of crisis support.
• Praised Services: Respondents praised several services, including crisis intervention, community mental health services, school support programs, and the Personality Disorder Community Service.
• Challenges in Coordination and Family Involvement: Coordination between service providers and the involvement of families and carers were the most poorly rated areas.
• Identified Gaps: Key gaps identified in the services include long waiting times for community mental health and crisis support and lack of early intervention measures. Specific concerns were raised about inadequate support for families and vulnerable groups such as those affected by substance abuse, neurodivergent individuals, those with learning disabilities, and residents of certain geographic areas. Additionally, follow-up support post-crisis was deemed insufficient.
• Awareness of Suicide and Self-Harm Prevention Services: While 98% of respondents were aware of Samaritans, many were unaware of other local offers (75% were unaware of 'Ask Me How I Am', 58% were unaware of Lifecraft’s bereavement support, and 46% were unaware of both Lifeline and STOP Suicide training).

The needs assessment included the following recommendations relating to suicide prevention:

Services and Commissioning

• Psychosocial assessments: Conduct comprehensive, person-centred psychosocial assessments for the care and treatment of individuals at risk of suicide, focusing on the quality of the therapeutic relationship. NICE has highlighted the flaws in suicide risk prediction and the need to replace risk prediction, including risk stratification, with a psychosocial approach (NICE NG225).
• Primary care: Emphasise the importance of primary care in the prevention and management of self-harm (NICE NG225) and suicide risks and that each interaction with a person struggling with their mental health represents an opportunity to inquire about suicidal ideation (NICE NG222 1.2.8; NICE NG225 1.13.5). Continue to support primary care providers with the necessary resources and training to handle these sensitive interactions effectively as currently done through Fullscope’s ‘Ask Me How I Am’ self-harm training and CPSL Mind‘s ‘Suicide Awareness and Response in Primary Care Training’. Additionally, increase the involvement of primary care in suicide prevention strategies.
• NCISH audit: mental health care providers should use the 'Safer Services toolkit,' developed by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH), for ongoing and at least annual self-assessments to enhance patient safety and reduce suicide rates.
• Equity of CYP bereavement support across C&P: Currently, Lifecraft provide bereavement support across C&P for people aged 17+ and STARS provide bereavement support for people aged 4-19 in Cambridgeshire, but there is a gap in support for young people in Peterborough. Consider making bereavement support more widely available, including in schools and colleges, and to identify and monitor those at increased risk.
• Frequent A&E Attenders: Investigate the needs of the frequent A&E attenders for selfinjurious behaviour (locally, ~1% of patients attended more than 10 times per year and account for 12% of the total A&E attendances).
• Follow-up Care: Enhance follow-up care for individuals who have attempted suicide or are engaging in ongoing self-harm. Ensure that support is also accessible to those contemplating self-harm or suicide to prevent attempts as a means of accessing help.
• Lived Experience and Peer Support: Incorporate insights from those with lived experience in designing, delivering, and evaluating self-harm and suicide prevention services. Enhance peer support to aid long-term recovery.
• Family and Carer Involvement: Ensure that all services are supported to engage with and provide support for families and carers who often have insights into the suicidality and self-harm of their loved ones not shared with professionals (NICE QS189; NICE NG225).
• Mental health support for at-risk groups: Link suicide prevention efforts with domestic abuse services and integrate mental health support with life-changing physical health diagnoses.
• Service Awareness: Increase the visibility and awareness of local suicide and self-harm prevention services, addressing the low awareness of offers like 'Ask Me How I Am', Lifecraft’s bereavement support, Lifeline, and STOP Suicide training.
• Dual Diagnosis: Improve the integration of services for individuals with substance misuse issues and mental health services, ensuring referrals can be made directly from mental health to drug and alcohol services and vice versa.

Prevention Strategies

• Loneliness and Isolation: Develop a local strategy to support individuals experiencing loneliness, isolation, and relationship breakdowns, which are significant risk factors both for suicide and self-harm. Enhance public mental health initiatives that support those navigating relationship challenges to mitigate these risk factors effectively.
• Linking Suicide Prevention with Poverty Reduction: Integrate suicide prevention efforts with local initiatives addressing poverty, focusing on individuals who are out of work, unemployed or on benefits.
• School Support Programs: Strengthen school and other education setting-based mental health programs to potentially reduce self-harm rates and improve children and young people’s mental health. Initiatives could include supporting peer-based help programs like Youth Aware of Mental Health and Teen Mental Health First Aid, workforce development to equip staff with better understanding and response strategies for self-harm, and implementing anti-bullying measures. While school support was highlighted in our stakeholder survey, evidence on effectiveness of such programs is currently limited. Robust local evaluations are required to assess their impact comprehensively.

Local suicide audit and strategy

• Commitment to sustained suicide prevention funding: Ensure the continuity of a suicide prevention lead within the Integrated Care System, alongside ongoing funding for prevention programmes. This would support leadership stability, enhance strategic planning, and guarantee the provision of essential services such as bereavement support.
• Dedicated analytical support for suicide audit: To ensure robust statistical analysis in suicide audits, dedicated analytical support is crucial for implementing statistical methods such as calculating confidence intervals and preventing overinterpretation of numerical changes as significant findings.
• Assess and address discrepancies in risk factors between the local audit and literature: Review the highlighted areas of discrepancy in the risk factor summary and advocate for their inclusion and monitoring where possible, e.g., recording of disability and benefit status, which are significant risk factors nationally but not recorded / available in the local audit.

Strategic Alignment: Align the local suicide prevention strategy with:

• The needs assessment’s recommendations, based on epidemiological data, evidence on prevention, lived experience, and stakeholder survey insights.
• National priorities (focusing on supporting vulnerable groups, addressing common risk factors, providing bereavement support, and promoting community-wide responsibility for suicide prevention).
• Local suicide prevention strategy evaluation (greater resources, aftercare for people who have self-harmed, addressing stigma around self-harm and suicide).
• Local suicide audit recommendations (follow-up care after suicide attempts, relationship breakdown support, lived experience involvement, recording of suicide intent in self-harm episodes, direct referrals to drug and alcohol services, mental health support alongside life-changing physical health diagnosis, suicide prevention support to domestic abuse victims).
• Domestic Homicide Review Panel recommendations (family and parental support following suicide training for professionals; collaboration between suicide prevention and domestic violence and abuse services; tailoring suicide prevention to different groups like people with autism, learning disabilities, and LGBTQ+ ; workplace engagement in suicide prevention).

Developing this strategy

This strategy has been developed by integrating key insights and recommendations from the national strategy and its action plan, the previous local strategy and its evaluation, the latest NCISH findings, and the recent suicide and self-harm needs assessment.

These combined inputs provided a set of draft priority areas (based on the framework of the national strategy), which were then used as the starting point for further prioritisation and development through stakeholder consultation via the Suicide Prevention Steering Group to produce the final strategy.

Once the priority areas for action have been approved, the development of an action plan will follow, to be led by the new suicide prevention manager. An action plan will further operationalise these priorities by outlining specific workstreams, leads, and timeframes.

Ambition

This strategy continues the existing ambition that:

Every person in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has access to the right care and support, from both the mental health system and their communities, to ensure that they do not die by suicide.

Aims

The aims of this strategy align with the aims of the national strategy, and will allow the measurement and evaluation of this strategy:

1. Reduce the rate of suicides in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
2. Improve support for people who have self-harmed and attempted suicide.
3. Improve support for people bereaved by suicide.

Key principles

These key principles continue from the previous strategy and should underpin our local system suicide prevention work:

1. Collaboration between services and joined-up working.
2. Communication, information sharing and the development of a learning culture.
3. Co-production with those with lived experience of suicide, self-harm and bereavement by suicide.

Priority Areas

These priority areas for action have been prioritised by the Suicide Prevention Steering Group:

1.Equip professionals and the public with the skills and awareness to prevent suicide

• Support system partners to implement new ‘Staying Safe from Suicide’ NHSE best practice guidance for safety assessment, formulation and management. This guidance is aimed at mental health practitioners, but is applicable to other professional groups.
• Expand access to suicide awareness and prevention training, including training for health and care staff, ensure frontline workers are well-equipped to support and refer people. Enhance communication training for professionals and promote traumainformed care.
• Engage better with GPs and Primary Care teams to ensure training meets their needs.
• Continue campaigns to raise awareness and reduce shame and stigma. Target key organisations including employers in high-risk occupations / sectors, and organisations interacting with vulnerable groups.
• Increase awareness of local mental health and wellbeing resources (Keep Your Head, How Are You?, STOP Suicide websites) and local self-harm and suicide prevention services.

2.Focus as a system on improving the treatment and support for people with affective disorders to prevent suicides

• Focus on collaboration and integration as a system, across primary and secondary care and with VCSE organisations, to ensure that patients with depression and bipolar disorder receive appropriate treatment options according to NICE guidance, and are supported with their wider psychosocial needs.
• Work together as a system to explore options to address known local issues affecting the availability and accessibility of evidence-based treatment options for affective disorders, including for treatment-resistant depression.
• Implement NCISH recommendations for mental health services including for nonadherence to treatment plans and follow-up after discharge from inpatient care.

3.Promote awareness and action within our system to prevent suicide in other priority risk groups

• Neurodivergent people (especially people with autism or ADHD) - share and apply learning from work by CPSL Mind, the Learning from the lives and deaths of people with a learning disability and autistic people (LeDeR) programme and local academics to raise awareness among professionals and to share training and tools (e.g. autismadapted safety planning).
• Domestic abuse victims – work closely with the local Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence partnership and implement the 'Domestic Abuse and suicidality toolkit'.
• People with problematic substance use - support the Mental Health JSNA recommendation to adopt the two key principles of ‘no wrong door’ and ‘everyone’s job’ across the system for people needing treatment for co-occurring substance use and mental health conditions.
• Young people (especially young men) - work with Education settings and with system partners to share learning and best practice to prevent suicide in young people.
• Middle-aged men – work with system partners to raise awareness among professionals and the public of risk factors for suicide in this age group, and to target campaigns.
• Bereaved people (including those bereaved by suicide) - see area 5 below.

4.Use data to drive preventive action and support following suicide attempts and suspected suicides

• Build on our current Real-Time Suicide Surveillance (RTSS) process to improve data capture, analysis, and onward sharing of intelligence with system partners.
• Expand the scope of RTSS to include the reporting and monitoring of suicide attempts as well as suspected suicides.
• Explore options to expand access to the existing CPSL Mind ‘Discharge Buddy Service’ to support more people who have attempted suicide.
• Improve the consistency and accuracy of self-harm/attempted suicide recording especially in local A&E departments, to support local surveillance.
• Improve the evaluation of suicide prevention interventions, training and campaigns.

5.Improve the capacity and coverage of suicide bereavement support services to support more people bereaved by suicide

• Seek security of funding for suicide bereavement support services to ensure capacity meets demand.
• Address the service gap for suicide bereavement support for children and young people in Peterborough.
• Ensure appropriate support is available for health and care professionals affected by suicide.
• Explore additional reserve funding for outreach suicide bereavement support as part of community suicide cluster response.
• Work with local organisations involved in wider bereavement support and local suicide prevention partners to raise awareness of bereavement as a risk factor for suicide.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the members of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Suicide Prevention Steering Group for their engagement in the development of this strategy, representing the following local organisations:

• Cambridgeshire County Council
• Peterborough City Council
• NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board
• Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust
• Cambridgeshire Constabulary
• East of England Ambulance Service Trust
• Lifecraft
• CPSL Mind
• Fullscope Collaboration
• NESSie
• Peterborough Samaritans
• The Sun Network
• Office for Health Improvement and Disparities
• NHS East of England
• Expert by Lived Experience
• Rethink Carer Support – Cambridgeshire and Peterborough