Understanding barriers to accessing suicide prevention support in Brent
Download (PDF 558.62 KB)Summary of report content
During July and August 2019, Healthwatch Brent undertook research to understand the awareness about suicide prevention in Brent. Their aim was to identify what support is available for residents of faith, and Central and Eastern European and wider communities at risk of committing suicide, to understand how these needs are being met and identifying any barriers preventing residents to access support and identify community groups or resources that could support in preventing suicide.
The report highlights their findings which they gathered from several sources including speaking to the Samaritans, a registered charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress; carrying out desktop research to find out whether there were resources available in the UK to support these groups in suicide prevention; and interviewing a broad range of the community groups that serves the population in Brent to better understand whether they encounter people at risk from suicide in their communities and how they would help prevent suicide.
The report concluded that community groups in Brent have limited skills and knowledge of the opportunities to be able to reduce the incidence of suicide; there was a lack of confidence and lack of insight as to why Eastern European men were over-represented in the Brent suicide data; most people were unaware of the Samaritans; there were barriers to accessing mental health services; some community organisations did not have protocols in place for suicide prevention or providing support and that providing additional support was difficult to deliver within their current budget. The report made seven recommendations and contains a response from Brent Council.