More than 20 suicide deaths registered in Mansfield and Ashfield last year

Organised by the International Association for Suicide Prevention and the World Health Organization, World Suicide Prevention Day has been observed on September 10 every year since 2003 and sees people come together around the world to raise awareness of the issue.

The theme this year is ‘creating hope through action’ and aims to inspire confidence and hope among those struggling with their mental health.

Office for National Statistics figures show 15 deaths from suicide were registered in Mansfield in 2021, up from eight the year before.

A further seven suicide deaths were recorded in 2019, meaning there were 10.4 suicides per 100,000 people in the area in the three years to 2021. This was up from 6.1 in 2018-20 and 7.0 in 2017-19.

Eleven deaths from suicide were registered in Ashfield in 2021 – up from six the year before. A further 15 were recorded in 2019, meaning there were 9.4 suicides per 100,000 people in the three years to 2021, up up from 7.1 in 2018-20 and 8.0 in 2017-19.

There were 5,583 suicides registered nationally in 2021, equivalent to a rate of 10.7 deaths per 100,000 people – up from 10.0 in 2020, but roughly in line with pre-pandemic levels of 11.0 in 2019 and 10.5 in 2018.

Mental health charity Rethink Mental Illness said, despite improvements in awareness, the increase in the suicide rate highlights the need to tackle the many risk factors that lead to suicide, including debt, financial stress and housing instability, all of which are being exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.

And Samaritans said the figures are ‘more worrying evidence not enough is being done to drive down our high suicide rates’.

Jacqui Morrissey, assistant director of research and influencing at the suicide-prevention charity, said: “We want to see a new national suicide prevention plan, led by the Government, that will achieve the lowest national suicide rate in history – anything less will simply be accepting failure.”

Lourdes Colclough, head of suicide prevention at Rethink Mental Illness, highlighted the ‘particularly worrying’ increasing trend of suicides among young women – suicide rates among females aged under 24 saw the greatest increase since records began in 1981, from 2.5 per 100,000 women in 2020 to 3.6 in 2021.

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the charity SANE, said this increase is ‘deeply alarming’, while Samaritans' research showed young people are more likely to face financial hardship in the wake of the pandemic and during the cost-of-living crisis.

A Department for Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Every suicide is a tragedy and our sympathies go to the family and friends of those affected."

He said the DHSC is prioritising children and young people's mental health with the existing Suicide Prevention Strategy and is investing £57 million in suicide prevention through the NHS to ‘support local plans and develop suicide bereavement services’ across the country.

Contact Samaritans for free at anytime on 116123, or visit samaritans.org