As we mark World Suicide Prevention Day on Thursday 10 September, NHS Charities Together and The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) are highlighting why suicide prevention needs to start before someone reaches crisis point – and the support available to ambulance workers.
“I didn’t want to end my life, but I was afraid I would.”
Changing the narrative on suicide means changing the way we think about prevention.
Suicide prevention is understood primarily through the lens of crisis: what happens when someone reaches the point where they need urgent help? But effective prevention has to begin much earlier – by understanding risk, recognising signs of distress, building confidence to have difficult conversations and making sure people can access the right support before they reach crisis point.
This is particularly important in the ambulance service, where staff work in challenging and often traumatic environments. The suicide rate among healthcare workers is 24% higher than the national average, while male paramedics face a 75% higher risk. (i)
The pressures facing the health service are well documented, and the challenges confronting ambulance services are particularly acute.
But while workplace pressures can contribute to poor mental health and increase suicide risk, the causes of suicide are complex and cannot be understood solely through the lens of the job.
That is why understanding risk and improving the quality of suicide data is so important.
Through a partnership between AACE, NHS Charities Together and NHS England, work is underway across the ambulance sector to strengthen suicide prevention. This builds on AACE’s establishment of a national ambulance suicide register, delivering suicide prevention training and providing dedicated crisis support. Funded by NHS Charities Together and NHS England’s Workforce Wellbeing programme, this is helping to bolster crucial mental and physical wellbeing support for NHS staff.
Better information and data helps us identify emerging themes, target local support more effectively and ensure that prevention efforts are shaped by evidence. Without a clear understanding of where risks exist and how they may be changing, it is much harder to know where prevention can have the greatest impact.
Data alone, however, cannot prevent suicide. It needs to translate into action.
That is why a key part of this work is the rollout of suicide prevention and awareness training across ambulance services. The training equips staff with the skills and confidence to engage with people experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotional crisis.
It covers understanding suicide in the ambulance service, supporting colleagues, managing suicidal callers and using effective de-escalation techniques.
Alongside this, wider resources have been developed by NHS England to support staff across the NHS to recognise signs of distress in themselves and others, and understand ways they can seek help.
This is about creating a culture where suicide can be discussed more openly – because conversations can be an important part of prevention.
This year’s World Suicide Prevention Day theme, Changing the Narrative on Suicide, recognises that progress can only happen when we are willing to talk about suicide, understand the risks and respond to them.
Support when it is needed most
For ambulance staff experiencing a crisis, having somewhere to turn at the point they need it most is vital.
Through The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC), ambulance workers have access to dedicated crisis support through the Ambulance Staff Crisis Line, a confidential 24-hour service for ambulance workers experiencing crisis or suicidal thoughts.
Since launching in November 2022, the service has supported staff facing a wide range of challenges, from traumatic incidents at work to relationship breakdowns and bereavement.
One caller said:
“Having experienced a highly traumatic incident at work, I was extremely suicidal.”
Another described the fear that can accompany suicidal thoughts:
“I had suicidal thoughts that were really scaring me. I didn’t want to end my life, but I was afraid I would.”
The crisis line takes a unique approach, providing immediate intervention when there is a serious and imminent risk to life.
Since 2022, the service has intervened in 62 cases where individuals were believed to be at immediate risk. Such interventions can include involving emergency services and are never decisions taken lightly, particularly when colleagues may be called to respond.
But prevention cannot stop at keeping someone safe in an immediate crisis.
Importantly, the crisis line’s role extends beyond emergency intervention. It provides evidence-based support designed to reduce ongoing suicide risk and help individuals move beyond crisis.
Through five tailored sessions, staff receive specialist support, practical coping strategies and techniques to help them manage future challenges. Follow-up counselling is also available to address underlying issues and support longer-term recovery.
This combination of early intervention, crisis support and longer-term help is important because there is no single intervention that can prevent suicide.
Continuing to strengthen prevention
Mental health support has become an increasing focus for UK ambulance services, with local wellbeing teams and ambulance charities investing in services that focus on prevention and use evidence-based approaches to support staff wellbeing.
For example, the East of England Ambulance charity is developing a trauma support model, supporting earlier intervention and a more responsive approach to trauma.
These approaches are extremely important, but there will always be a need for targeted suicide prevention measures and specialist crisis services.
Significant progress has been made. Suicide prevention and postvention support is now available across all UK ambulance services, and organisations are becoming more confident in having open conversations about suicide.
Yet there is still more to do.
Changing the narrative on suicide means recognising that prevention starts before a crisis point is reached.
For ambulance workers, that means continuing to improve our understanding of risk, investing in early intervention, making it easier to talk openly about suicide and ensuring that specialist support is available when it is needed.
The Ambulance Staff Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day via theasc.org.uk/crisis or on 0300 373 0898.
Get access to further Suicide Prevention resources here.
data sources (i) www.zerosuicidealliance.com/application/files/6417/5801/0113/Evidence_review_-_suicide_risk_in_healthcare_staff_-_Sept_2025.pdf
