NHS Wales Executive and Skills for Health publish self-harm and suicide prevention framework 

NHS Wales Executive and Skills for Health have launched a framework to support undergraduate and pre-registration learning for the prevention of suicide and self-harm. 

The Developing Undergraduate and Pre-registration Learning for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-harm framework provides undergraduate, pre-registration and pre-qualifying students in health, care and social work a foundation in the core areas of learning around suicide prevention and self-harm reduction. 

Suicide is a serious public health problem and prevention is a high priority in Wales, with 339 suicides deaths registered in 2022. According to Public Health Network Wales, there were 5,500 self-harm related medical admissions per year across all age groups in Wales in 2022, making it one of the top five causes of hospital admissions in the country. 

Against this background, a national multi-agency survey of training needs last year identified significant gaps in training among front line workers who regularly encounter individuals affected by suicide and self-harm.  

The survey found that nearly a third of respondents hadn’t received any training in the prevention of suicide and self-harm, and one in five respondents reported that they were not confident in responding appropriately to patients and service users.  

The NHS Wales Executive and Skills for Health framework seeks to overcome this challenge by identifying learning that will enable the future workforce to confidently engage with individuals, groups and communities who may be experiencing distress and suicidal thoughts. 

The development of the framework saw NHS Wales Executive and Skills for Health worked in tandem with key stakeholders to develop a comprehensive set of learning standards and the supporting materials describing the areas of knowledge, skills and behaviours to successfully support suicide and self-harm prevention. 

Claire Cotter, National Programme Lead, Suicide and Self Harm Prevention at NHS Wales Executive comments: 

‘’Following a rigorous commissioning process, we were delighted to be able to work with Skills for Health, confident in their extensive experience in workforce development in health and care, and other skills sectors. Having worked with them previously, on key workforce products in England, it was extremely helpful to know we could tap into their understanding of the development, regulation, and registration of multiple disciplines in health and care; and to place our full trust in their robust methodology to deliver on a service specification at pace, while engaging effectively with our key stakeholders. We are really pleased with the outcome, that we believe will help to initiate productive and progressive conversations with our colleagues across our university sector, as well as front-line health and care workers.’’