Download Older People and Suicide Report:  Author Derek Beeston of Staffordshire University Centre for Ageing and Mantal Health

Factsheets:  a set of fact sheets accompanied Derek's report aimed particularly at GPs and Commissioners

• Executive Summary
• Suicide Prevention in Older People
• Recognising Those at Risk
• Challenging Devaluation
• Older People, Suicide and Media Reporting

March 2007 Suicide in Elders Conference, and comments on the Conference

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What we set out to change

The issue of lack of awareness about suicide in older people was identified. Those involved had a passion to improve services for older people with mental health problems and pledged themselves collectively to take action along four principles:-

1. Consciousness raising and Politicisation - it's a health scandal.
2. Challenging pre-conceptions - e.g. negativity and fatalism of both professionals and older people themselves.
3. It doesn't have to be this way - that is, a paradigm shift...

• from reactive to proactive;
• from late to early intervention;
• from high intensity to low intensity supports including local community resources.

4. Holding and generating optimism - that effective things can be done.

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Setting up a project built on partnerships and collaborations

CSIP West Midlands responded by designing a project shared across four of its worksreams:

• Mental health promotion
• Older People;
• Primary Care;
• Suicide Prevention.

Subsequently Staffordshire University Centre for Ageing and Mental Health was commissioned to provide a review and analysis.

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The Benefits: What was produced

This project began by producing a literature review, report and some fact sheets led by Derek Beeston of the Centre. These were of the highest quality and formed the basis for ongoing dissemination and raising the profile of the issue in line with the principles agreed at the onset.

Media coverage includes:

• Derek Beeston's article 'Sad Ending' in The Guardian (March 14th 07);
• RCGP press release "Too little, too old, too late" (March 25 07);
• Jill Manthorpe's research article on www.communitycare.co.uk (May 10th 07):

 

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Benefits to partnerships

This project has progressed from strength to strength, far exceeding the original intentions, providing extraordinary value for the modest funding outlay. This has been due in main to the breadth of the collaborations and the networks thus accessed. Sustaining the continued growth of this initiative has undoubtedly been the passion to secure change.

The whole project can be characterised as low cost / high impact.

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More benefits ~ a ripple effect ~

More excitingly, the positive experiences of this collaboration have:

1. inspired the Early Intervention in Psychosis / Primary Care programmes of CSIP in the West Midlands and North West to develop a set of resources which targeted early detection of psychosis.
2. led to the Older Peoples and Primary Care Programmes agreeing to convene a discussion seminar which led to a joint consensus statement which engaged several Royal Colleges and voluntary sector organisations