Preventing Suicide and Supporting Wellbeing in the Ambulance Sector
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) and the Office of the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer (CAHPO) are delighted to launch three publications aimed at supporting the health and wellbeing of the ambulance sector workforce and preventing suicide in this service.
The publications were formally launched at the Ambulance Leadership Forum on the 18 May 2021 by Suzanne Rastrick, Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England.
They comprise the following:
Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Service: A National Consensus Statement for England
The consensus statement sets out the shared commitment and call to action of all partners, to lead sustainable change across the ambulance sector, focusing on promoting good mental health and wellbeing, providing care and support when needed, and ensuring a positive culture.
Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Service: What We Know
This publication presents evidence to support the increased risk of suicide in the ambulance sector, particularly male paramedics when compared to the general population.
Rather than identifying a single driver of suicide risk in the ambulance sector it identifies collective risk factors which impact overall mental health and wellbeing, which provide the foundation for the national consensus statement and associated next steps for action.
Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Service: Next Steps
Based on the findings of the Prevention of Suicide in the Ambulance Service: What We Know publication, and the commitments made in the associated National Consensus Statement for England, this document sets out the recommendations for action for the prevention of suicide in the ambulance service.
The background to this work
The Office of National Statistics’ Suicide by Occupation (Data 2011-2015) details the risk of suicide male paramedics as being 75% more likely to take their own life than any other health care professional.
As a result, in April 2020 the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer for England, Suzanne Rastrick, commissioned a programme of work to address the increased risk of suicide amongst paramedics.
This programme of work brought together key stakeholders in the form of an ambulance sector suicide prevention and wellbeing advisory group, to feed into this work and shape the final publications.
Stakeholder groups included:
- Association of Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE)
- College of Paramedics
- Public Health England
- NHS England and NHS Improvement
- Health Education England
- South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- University of East Anglia
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service
- Samaritans
- NHS Employers
- The Ambulance Staff Charity
- Mind Blue Light Programme
- East Midlands Ambulance Service
Other work linked to these publications:
Through the establishment of the ambulance sector suicide prevention and wellbeing advisory group for the original purpose of developing the three ‘Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Service’ documents, there have been several opportunities to initiate discrete pieces of work related to the overarching aim of suicide prevention and mental health support in the ambulance sector.
Details of this work and the respective lead stakeholder(s) are as follows:
- Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Sector: Implementation Tool
This tool is designed to help with integrating the Working Together to Prevent Suicide in the Ambulance Sector: A National Consensus Statement for England (link) into the ambulance sector.
Development is being led by University of East Anglia and it will be made available in the Ambulance Wellbeing Resources section of the AACE website in the coming months.
- Mental health and wellbeing resources for pre-registration and newly qualified Paramedics
These resources include curriculum guidance regarding personal mental health and wellbeing for pre-registration paramedic training, which will include content and experiences within pre-qualification training, a wellbeing and recovery support tool for used by paramedic students and early career staff in ambulance trusts and a learning and development package for student and preceptorship supervisors.
This work is being led by the College of Paramedics in partnership with Health Education England, and will be published in the Ambulance Wellbeing Resources section of the AACE website in the coming months.
- Postvention guidance for the Ambulance Service
An evidence based postvention guidance aimed at ensuring excellent support after a suicide within the paramedic community, to help prevent further deaths.
This work is being led by Samaritans and will be published in the Ambulance Wellbeing Resources section of the AACE website in the coming months.
- Family handbook to support families and friends of ambulance sector staff
The handbook will be an important resource to families and friends of ambulance sector staff. The document will be available online. It is envisaged that the online version will be interactive and contain links to relevant sites and further information held by The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) and other organisations as appropriate.
The document will be downloadable in PDF form as a booklet and will be hosted and maintained by TASC on their website, and also published in the Ambulance Wellbeing Resources section of the AACE website in the coming months.
- Formalising and implementing an approach to a central suicide register for the ambulance sector
The purpose of this process is to record the number, characteristics and contributory factors associated with deaths by suicide within the ambulance service sector across the UK whilst collecting a consistent dataset that will facilitate the prevention of future deaths and monitoring the impact of prevention activities. The overall goal is to reduce suicide deaths amongst the ambulance service workforce.
This work is being led by AACE and will be published in the Ambulance Wellbeing Resources section of this website in the coming months.
Supporting our work:
We are appealing to key stakeholders on this project to share the news of the three publications through their own communications channels; websites, social media, relevant virtual forums and email bulletins.
Download the 3 new publications here.
If you have any questions about this programme of work, please contact stephanie.gates@nhs.net
