National award success for South West Zero Suicide Collaborative

Posted in #ProudofDPT, News on 27th July, 2016

A collaborative launched in Exeter is celebrating winning a national award.

South West Zero Suicide Collaborative won the Patient Safety in Mental Health award category at the 2016 Patient Safety Awards, which were held in Manchester and organised by the Health Service Journal and Nursing Times.

Since 2014, the local collaborative has started to change the thinking about the inevitability of suicide and saved lives through training, specific initiatives at high-risk locations and through sharing stories. It involves more than 160 people from across the region including people from the emergency services, the RNLI, the police, health workers, voluntary agencies, the Samaritans and members of the public whose lives have been affected by suicide, as well as people who have themselves survived a suicide attempt.

The awards were an evening of recognition and celebration for those demonstrating improved practice and delivery in patient safety. This year there were over 650 submissions, with 170 shortlisted, and from those 18 winners were decided by the judges.

Devon Partnership NHS Trust Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Adrian James (pictured right), who leads on the collaborative, said: “The South West has one of the highest rates of suicide in England and a particularly worrying level of women committing suicide - although the majority are men.

“In many ways the south west is leading the country in suicide prevention and this award is great recognition for our work over the past few years. Particular thanks go to people whose lives have been affected by suicide as their input has been invaluable. Far too many people are still taking their own lives and we want to do everything we can to move closer to our aspiration of zero suicide."

To find out more about South West Zero Suicide Collaborative visit: http://www.zerosuicide.co.uk

I need help with

Our locations

National award success for South West Zero Suicide Collaborative

Related Articles