2. What discussions has the First Minister had with the Minister for Health and Social Services about improving support for those bereaved by suicide in Wales? OAQ54616

I thank Lynne Neagle for that question, Llywydd. Regular discussions take place between myself and the Minister on a wide range of health and social services matters. These discussions have included support for those bereaved by suicide in Wales. 

Thank you, First Minister. We recently held the first substantive meeting of the new cross-party group on suicide prevention, focusing on suicide bereavement. We had a very powerful presentation from the inspirational Angela Samata, about how, working with those bereaved by suicide, a range of innovative projects have been developed in England, both to support those bereaved by suicide and to prevent further suicides. The Welsh Government committed in its response to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee's 'Everybody's Business' report to urgently review the postvention pathway now in place in England, in order to adapt it for Wales. Given that we know that bereavement by suicide is a major risk factor for dying by suicide, and that postvention is therefore prevention, when can we expect such a pathway to be in place in Wales, and will you ensure that lived experience is fully taken into account in its development?

Can I thank Lynne Neagle for that supplementary question, and to welcome the formation of the cross-party group on this really important subject? She is right to say that we are committed to developing a national postvention bereavement pathway here in Wales. And this is to be a key priority for the new national lead on suicide prevention, and the three regional workers who will sit alongside the national lead, to make sure that we are able to develop a system in which the help that is already there for people who find themselves bereaved by suicide is not passively available to them and that does not rely on them going out to find the help that is there, but that the help that is available is organised in a way that makes that help actively available to people who find themselves in this position, and finds its way to them not once, but repeatedly over the period in which bereavement will be taking place. Because we know that people who are in that terrible position of suffering a bereavement through suicide are often simply not in a position themselves to go making the first move to get the help that they need. And even sometimes when help comes to them, it may be the wrong moment—it may not be the moment where they are able to take advantage of the help that is offered. So, we need a postvention pathway that is active in taking that help to those individuals and making sure that they are aware of what's available to them, and taking that help is made as easy as possible. And that is absolutely illustrated in the final point that Lynne Neagle made—that that way of doing things is drawn directly from the lived experience of people who have found themselves in this awful position. And we're lucky that they have been willing to contribute that experience to us in Wales, to help with the development of the postvention bereavement pathway.

A fortnight ago, as Chair of the cross-party group on funerals and bereavement, I met Rhian Mannings, who is the founder and chief executive of the all-Wales charity 2 Wish Upon a Star, to discuss their work providing essential bereavement support for families who have suddenly and traumatically lost a child or young adult aged 25 years and under, which may be from suicide, or may be through accident or illness. As she said, sudden death is the forgotten death in Wales. And although they've become a statutory service, effectively, in Wales, working with every health board, every police force, they're receiving no statutory support whatsoever, having to raise every penny themselves. She said they're reducing pressure on mental health teams, helping tackle that unforeseeable trauma of unpredictable death and loss. How, therefore, do you respond to their statement that their services therefore need to be widely known, with a multi-agency approach undertaken, to ensure that this support can be delivered Wales wide and that the severe long-term consequences for the survivors can be reduced?

Well, I respond first of all by saying how fortunate we are in Wales, Llywydd, to have groups like 2 Wish Upon a Star, organisations like Sands, and Bliss, all of whom draw on the enormous efforts of volunteers to provide help to families who find themselves in those deeply distressing situations. It's only a matter of a few weeks ago, Llywydd, that Baby Loss Awareness Week took place, and we had the annual event that I've had the privilege of sponsoring over a number of years now, where a number of Assembly Members, from across the Chamber, attended over at the Pierhead, where we were able to meet directly with people from those services, but also people who had lost a child very early on in that child's life, with a hurt that never goes away, and the need for the opportunity to talk with other people who have experienced the same thing themselves, to have the expert help that 2 Wish Upon a Star and other organisations can provide, was vividly part of the event that was held in the Pierhead. So, I absolutely commend the work that they do. I know that the health service in Wales wants to work carefully alongside them, but never to substitute for the extra ingredient that comes with people who have had that experience themselves, looking to make that available to others and to help them through an experience that they themselves have had to travel sometimes alone.