Suicide strategy has failed, and GPs need better training in assessing risk, say MPs

National efforts to reduce the number of suicides in England have failed, and a new drive to tackle the problem must be backed by a clear implementation strategy, MPs have said.

Politicians on the parliamentary health committee published an interim report1 into suicide prevention on 19 December in which they also called for better training for GPs in identifying and dealing with suicide risk.

The report said that 4820 people were recorded as having died in 2015 from suicide in England with the true figure likely to be higher. The 2014 suicide rate (10.3 deaths in every 100 000) was the highest since 2004.

This was despite the launch of the government’s 2012 suicide prevention strategy.2 The government said that it would publish …