Tag: Suicide

Public Health

Current Awareness

Suicide awareness materials: do they help people with suicidal ideation?
The Mental Elf; 2020.

(Hanzla Amir and Derek Tracy summarise a recent online randomised controlled trial on the effects of suicide awareness materials on people who feel suicidal, which finds that the Papageno effect is real and that stories of hope and recovery can help.)

Whole systems approach to obesity.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(A guide and set of resources to support local authorities with implementing a whole systems approach to address obesity and promote a healthy weight.
7 December 2020: Added ‘Engaging NHS system leaders in whole systems approaches to physical activity’.)

Supporting public health: children, young people and families.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Documents to support local authorities and providers in commissioning and delivering maternal and child public health services from preconception up to 24 years. 8 December 2020: Updated to include the 6 maternity high impact area guides.)

How England will end new cases of HIV: final report and recommendations.
HIV Commission; 2020.

(The HIV Commission is an ambitious, independent process to find the path to ending new HIV transmissions and HIV-attributed deaths in England by 2030. Its report sets out 20 achievable and evidence-based actions that need to be taken if this goal is to be met.)

Obesity Profile: December 2020 update.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Obesity Profile online data tool: update with new data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for academic year 2019 to 2020.)

What people are telling us: a summary, July – September 2020 Healthwatch, 2020

(Between July and September 2020, more than 38,082 people shared their experiences of using health and social care with Healthwatch. This briefing is a summary of the key issues that the public are telling us about, including access to NHS dental care; the support provided in care homes; and accessing Covid-19 tests.)

Interventions to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence Public Health England (PHE), 2020

(A guidance resource from PHE to help tackle the root causes of violence and
change behaviours that lead to violence. It includes a summary of research and good practice in bystander interventions.)

Mental health

Current awareness updates

Pushed from pillar to post: improving the availability and quality of support after self-harm in England

Samaritans, October 2020 (This report finds that there is no consistently effective support available to people who self-harm. The research identified four key support needs for people who self-harm, which are seen as essential to providing effective care: distraction from immediate self-harm urges; emotional relief in times of stress; developing alternative coping strategies; and addressing the underlying reasons for self-harm. The report makes several recommendations for how the needs of people who self-harm can be met more effectively.)

Adaptation of evidence-based suicide prevention strategies during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wasserman D. World Psychiatry 2020;19(3):294-306.
[While there is evidence indicating that suicide rates decrease during times of crises, they are expected to increase once the immediate crisis has passed. The scientific community, health care professionals, politicians and decision-makers will find in this paper a systematic description of the effects of the pandemic on suicide risk at the society, community, family and individual levels, and an overview of how evidence-based suicide preventive interventions should be adapted.]


The COVID-19 anxiety syndrome scale: Development and psychometric properties.
Nikčević AV. Psychiatry Research 2020;292:113322.
[In Study 1, a community sample of 292 participants completed the newly developed COVID-19 Anxiety Syndrome Scale (C-19ASS) and results were subjected to a Principal Components Analysis. In Study 2, a community sample of 426 participants completed a battery of questionnaires including the C-19ASS. The C-19ASS appears to be a reliable and valid measure of the COVID-19 anxiety syndrome. The implications of these findings are discussed.]

What should be done to support the mental health of healthcare staff treating COVID-19 patients? Tracy DK, Tarn M, Eldridge R, Cooke J, Calder JDF, Greenberg N.Br J Psychiatry. 2020 Oct;217(4):537-539

(There is an urgent need to provide evidence-based well-being and mental health support for front-line clinical staff managing the COVID-19 pandemic who are at risk of moral injury and mental illness. This article describes the evidence base for a tiered model of care, and practical steps on its implementation.)

Public health

Keeping up to date with current awareness

Commission on Alcohol Harm
King’s Fund
This Commission was set up by alcohol health experts and parliamentarians to examine the full extent of alcohol harm across the UK. In this, its final report, the Commission outlines recommendations for reducing harm and calls for a national strategy for alcohol. More detail here.

Suicide risk in young people who self-harm and visit emergency departments.
The Mental Elf; 2020
(Katerina Kavalidou reviews a prospective observational cohort study on mortality and suicide risk in young people after they present to hospital emergency departments following episodes of self-harm.)

COVID-19 surveillance in school KIDs (sKIDs): pre and primary schools.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020
(A report on the preliminary results of the COVID-19 testing and antibody prevalence surveillance in schools programme, colloquially known as sKIDs. Prospective active national surveillance of preschools and primary schools for SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission in England, June 2020. The report concludes that SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission rates were low in preschool and primary schools under surveillance during the summer.)

Calorie reduction: guidelines for the food industry.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.
(A technical report outlining guidelines for industry, 2017 baseline calorie levels and next steps. This report sets out the calorie reduction ambitions for all food industry sectors, including: the approach to calorie reduction and reformulation; the different ambitions set across food industry sectors recognising that more action is required in the eating out, takeaway and delivery sectors; food products included in the categories; baseline figures for the different food sectors.)

Making a support bubble with another household.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2020.
(How you can safely expand the group of people you have close contact with during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Published 9 September 2020.)

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Systematic Review

Air pollution (particulate matter) exposure and associations with depression, anxiety, bipolar, psychosis and suicide risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This review found that although there was a limited amount of literature available, the findings supported the hypothesis of a link between long term particulate exposure and depression.  Higher quality studies are needed to investigate this further.

The review can be found here