High staff turnover linked to patient suicide, research finds

A study conducted by the Centre for Suicide prevention has found that mental health trusts with high levels of staff turnover were most likely to have increased rates of patient suicide.

The research outlined that the importance of organisational factors such as staffing were critical in mental health trusts, in order to support patient wellbeing.

The study maintained that key improvements in NHS mental health care over recent years may have helped to reduce suicide rates in England, but cautioned more needed to be done. The research examined the adoption of 16 recommendations for safer services made in 2015 by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by people with Mental Illness.

The report investigated patient suicide rates between the period of 1997 and 2012 and analysed the data of 19,348 patients who were in contact with mental health services in the year before they died.

The findings of the study highlight that 94 per cent of services had implemented at least 10 of the recommendations made by the inquiry, while 55 per cent had implemented all 16.

The changes which had the biggest success rates included increasing the availability of specialist community services; better management of patients with dual diagnosis; reviews and information with families after suicide; policies to help manage the transition to adult services; and implementing NICE guidelines on depression.

In particular, many trusts had implemented policies to reduce absconding on in-patient wards and a mechanism to implement National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

Professor Kapur, one of the authors of the study, said: “Our study suggests that many of these interventions may prevent suicide and save lives. The data also show that at least as important as these initiatives might be the organisational context in which they are introduced.

Professor Louis Appleby, director of the National Confidential Inquiry and study co-author, added: “This study shows that how clinical staff work can make a difference to patient suicide risk.

“Mental health trusts with low staff turnover, and where staff reviewed suicide deaths with families had lower suicide rates suggesting that healthy, learning organisations may also be safer."