Research projects

Support for improving community-based care for self-harm

We have been commissioned by NHS England and NHS Improvement to support 12 areas in England to improve community-based services and care for people who self-harm. Together with experts from the Manchester Self-Harm Project (MaSH) and NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre (PSTRC), we will support participating areas by providing:

• Expert knowledge of current self-harm data and research;
• Guidance on national guidelines and recommendations for the care of people who self-harm;
• Advise on methods of data collection to monitor and evaluate the impact of service changes for people who self-harm;
• An online resource to gather useful information in an easily accessible format.

This is part of a national programme funded by NHS England and NHS Improvement linked to establishing new and integrated models of primary and community mental health care across England. Read more about this collaboration here. This work is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and funded by NHS England and NHS Improvement.

Reducing suicides: Quality improvement and patient safety

We are working with experts in Quality Improvement at the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) to support Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STPs) to strengthen their local suicide prevention quality improvement plans. This is part of a nationally recognised suicide reduction priority across Department of Health, NHS England, and an overall Mental Health Five Year Forward View recommendation to reduce the suicide rate by 10% by 2020/21.

Together with NCCMH, we are working with Quality Improvement teams in each STP to:

• review their services against established guidelines and recommendations, and improve the quality of care they offer, using bespoke data provided from the NCISH database, benchmarked against the national average;
• provide expert knowledge of suicide prevention in three priority areas – mental health secondary care, services for self-harm, and middle-aged men;
• identify and help STPs adopt and embed national evidence including NCISH “10 ways to improve patient safety” into local quality improvement plans;
• advise on local data collection and suicide prevention plans.

The study is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).

In May 2019, NCISH were winners of a 2019 Making a Difference award for social responsibility.

Click here for a video explaining our work on suicide prevention.

Read our March 2020 update on the national suicide prevention programme in this blog, by NCISH researchers Nicola Richards and Cathryn Rodway.

Read a blog on our work with NCCMH to help local areas improve suicide prevention plans, by the NCISH project manager, Dr Pauline Turnbull.

Download a summary of how we help local areas improve suicide prevention plans.

National academic response to COVID-19 related suicide prevention

We have extended our national suicide prevention support role to include responding to local area’s concerns specific to the pandemic. Read more about our work here.

Read a blog on NCISH’s contribution to suicide prevention during COVID-19, by NCISH researcher Nicola Richards.

Substance misuse services in the UK

People with substance misuse and dependence problems are at increased risk of  co-occurring mental illness and suicide. Over half of people who die by suicide who are in recent contact with mental health services have a history of alcohol or drug misuse. In the UK, substance misuse services were historically provided by the NHS alongside specialist mental health care. Following 10 years of NHS reforms they have been significantly reshaped, with third sector organisations playing a greater role. This has made national investigations of people in contact with substance misuse services potentially more challenging to complete.   

This study will be working towards establishing a national investigation into deaths by suicide in substance misuse services in the UK. More specifically, we will be liaising with national data providers to developed a detailed technical proposal for data linkage, exploring data quality, and setting out specific risks, costs and timescales.

The study is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP).

Suicide by middle-aged men

Middle-aged men have the highest suicide rate in the UK but are often not in contact with services. This study will combine multiple sources of information to examine factors related to suicide in this hard-to-reach group, including barriers to accessing services. More specifically, the objectives of the study are:

• to examine the characteristics of middle-aged men who die by suicide;
• to determine how frequently suicide is preceded by factors that are more often associated with suicide by men than by women (e.g. masculinities, socio-economic position, social disconnectedness, reluctance to seek help for both mental and physical health);
• to examine the role of support services;
• to make recommendations to strengthen suicide prevention for middle-aged men.

The study is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and a report will be published in 2021.

Current collaborations and associated projects

We work collaboratively with national and international academic and health colleagues in the area of suicide prevention research. Our ongoing projects are listed below.