6. What action is the Welsh Government taking to try to prevent an increase in suicides as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? OQ56336

We've ensured that mental health services are essential services during the pandemic and have invested in a range of approaches to improve support. Preventing suicide is a complex issue and requires a multi-agency approach. We have strengthened arrangements, therefore, to improve the co-ordination of actions with partners including police, local authorities and the third sector.

I thank the Minister for that response. 

This is an extremely difficult and sensitive subject, as anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide will know, but I feel it is important that we talk about it so that we can be sure that everything can be done to prevent deaths. The issue came home to me last week after watching an ITV news report that included an interview with the leader of RCT council. He said that the suicide rate had doubled in the area during the pandemic, and I've heard concerning stories across Wales. The situation was already concerning before COVID, with Office for National Statistics data showing that suicides were at their highest for 20 years in the latest year for which data are available, which is 2019. The Welsh Government does have a suicide and self-harm prevention strategy, which is very welcome of course, but could you give me some more detail, Minister, about how the effects of the pandemic have been taken into account in delivering this service, and will you please set out the support that is currently available for people who are suffering from depression during the lockdown so that people can know where to turn to for help?

We have been able, with some additional funding, to appoint a national suicide prevention co-ordinator, and we've now got three regional co-ordinators to make sure we strengthen that partnership working. It's a very odd situation, because one of the things that we've tried to do is to make sure that we follow real-time information. Suicide is a really difficult area, because actually you have to wait until there's an inquest to get a formal understanding of what exactly has happened. That provides us with a problem, but rather than waiting for that to happen, we've got now these organisations, including the police, making sure they've fed into this task and finish group with us and the police to make sure we understand what's going on on the ground. 

I guess one of the heartening things is that The BMJ recently published a report to say there wasn't any evidence of a consistent increase in suicide rates during the early stages of the pandemic. So, that's the picture that they've seen, and of course, we'll just keep an eye on what's happening within this space, because of course, this is the most tragic situation and we have to do everything we can to make sure that we're assessing that. Health boards are required to report unexpected deaths of patients within 24 hours, and there's an expectation that there's going to be an investigation within 60 days, so that real-time issue is something that we're keeping an eye on.