Can I place on record my thanks to everyone who gave evidence in this inquiry, recognising how difficult it must have been for so many of them? During our wide-ranging work on the health committee, we do consider some difficult issues. We've dealt with families living with dementia, the use of antipsychotic drugs, the challenges of isolation and loneliness, to name just a few, but I found the inquiry on suicide prevention to be the most challenging and at times the most harrowing of these experiences. Indeed, at the time that we decided to undertake the inquiry, as we know, and as Jack has so powerfully spoken about today, we in this very place have been directly touched by the tragedy of suicide, so I'm aware of how close the subject is to all of us.

For me, one of the key messages from the inquiry was the need for increased awareness. That became clear after listening to accounts of bereaved parents, children, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers—people seeking answers to why their loved ones had taken their own lives. It was simply heartrending. And as a parent myself, I was left with a feeling of such overwhelming sorrow after talking to the parents at the Jacob Abraham Foundation that I couldn't wait to get home that evening to speak to my own two sons to reassure myself that everything in their lives was okay and to make sure that they knew that it was okay to talk to me about anything that was worrying them. And yet, on reflection, it was probably a personal shock for me to also realise how relatively limited my own awareness of suicide was and about how to spot the signs, or to be aware of the techniques for making interventions. I realised that a lack of awareness should be a wake-up call to all of us. Because we heard those families say that when people spoke to them afterwards about the signs, they could see that they were there, but they just didn't know or recognise them or know what to have done. Being aware of those signs is the first step to having the conversation that could prevent a tragedy. I'm mindful of the evidence to the inquiry by the Zero Suicide Alliance who told us there is no easy way to ask someone if they intend to kill themselves, but it won't make it more likely. 

Then, to hear that bereaved families had little or no support in the immediate aftermath of their tragedy, not even access to relevant information on a leaflet giving them practical advice on what to do next—that was also shocking to say the least. So, having invested in support such as 'Help is at hand Cymru', we do need to make sure that that support is available across our primary care services, other public services and third sector organisations, and that people have the knowledge needed to offer practical advice when it's required, because to date this hasn't happened.

For some insights into front-line experience, it was also useful to hear evidence about how the police deal with cases of suicide. I noted the evidence about their existing training programmes. We must build on that kind of experience too. But it did strike me that, while the police have the unenviable job of going to tell a relative of a death by suicide, because no crime has been committed, they spend relatively little or no time talking to or comforting the families, however personally sympathetic they may be. In contrast, however, the police do provide support to families in other circumstances through their family liaison officers if a deceased loved one has been the victim of a crime. So, it was evidence like this that highlighted for me how across the public services we can increasingly help to make sure that suicide is everyone's business and why the report calls on Welsh Government and all partners to focus on addressing causes, providing support and working on prevention. 

Llywydd, while our inquiry was wide ranging and looked at a whole range of suicide statistics, for me, like Lynne Neagle, in the week that we heard the inquest findings of 14-year-old Derek Brundrett from Pembrokeshire who took his life in 2013, suicide by young people came through for me as a particular concern. Young people are impressionable, they're dealing with many changes in their lives, through puberty, schooling, university, moving away from home. They're often not prepared for the pressures that these changes bring with them and they can suffer terribly with low self-esteem and feelings of helplessness and not knowing where to go or who to turn to for help. Despite the evidence suggesting that awareness and discussion is often the best form of prevention, as has previously been mentioned, we also heard that schools are often reluctant to address this and to talk about suicide. 

But most worryingly, when young people do reach out, the level of support that is out there in theory is rarely available in practice at the time that it's needed. We heard about young people who have taken their lives while waiting for counselling support, about GPs being unable to directly access professional advice, about appointments being cancelled because a psychologist or counsellor was off sick. I was struck by the analogy that was given to us about this. It was unlikely, for example, that an appointment would be cancelled if you were a cancer patient who went for your radiotherapy treatment. Someone else would cover it. The parity of esteem argument between physical and mental health was writ large in that example. 

I am, however, satisfied that, between the efforts of Lynne Neagle and the Children, Young People and Education Committee report, 'Mind over matter', and now this report, we are providing the evidence for the continuing case for a step change in our intervention services. It's only by delivering—