ENGLAND: Tackling Suicide Rate Is Litmus Test, Says Jeremy Hunt
February 16, 2018
England’s National Health Service (NHS) will require every mental health facility in the country to develop a suicide prevention plan. The government has called for plans to include patient observation, data collection, and psychiatric ward safety. The new policy extends the government’s 2015 initiative to reduce suicide rates to zero. According to health secretary Jeremy Hunt, this year the government will focus on preventing suicide among people already receiving mental health services. At the recent National Suicide Prevention Alliance conference, Hunt said that the NHS should aim for “zero suicides” throughout its mental health care system. “For me, suicide is the litmus test of the extent to which we are improving our overall quality of care,” he said.
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