Responding to new near to Real Time Suspected Suicide Surveillance (nRTSSS) data released today by the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, Jacqui Morrissey, Assistant Director of Influencing at Samaritans, said:
“Effective suicide prevention requires the right data at the right time. This long awaited national near real time data on suspected suicides provides an important early warning system which should help identify potential changes in suicide trends and enable intervention sooner - ultimately saving more lives. The government must build on this opportunity to radically improve our knowledge of who is dying by suicide, expanding the data collection to include information such as ethnicity and occupation. We know suicide is complex, so investment in systems like national data collection is crucial to giving the best chance of reducing lives lost to suicide.”
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