Excess Mortality for People Referred to Secondary Mental Health Services (aged 18 to 74), 2019 to 2021

This report contains sensitive content which refers to details on deaths by suicide.

If you are struggling to cope, please call the Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and the Republic of Ireland) or contact other sources of support, such as those listed on the NHS help for suicidal thoughts webpage. Support is available around the clock, every day of the year, providing a safe place for you, whoever you are and however you are feeling.

Any onward reporting of this data should consider following the Samaritans’ media guidelines on the reporting of suicide because of the potentially damaging consequences of irresponsible reporting. In particular, the guidelines advise on terminology and include links to sources of support for anyone affected by the themes in this report.

To measure the extent to which adults in contact with secondary mental health services die younger by suicide than adults who are not in contact with secondary mental health services by suicide, a new underlying cause of death 'suicide' has been added to this publication.

There is a higher suicide rate among people referred to secondary mental health services in the 5 years before their death. This is likely to reflect the greater mental health needs and higher underlying risk in this group compared with the general population. These clinical characteristics should be considered when interpreting the statistics. Mental health services play an important role in suicide prevention by supporting people at increased risk of suicide. The statistics should be interpreted with caution.

A patient is classed as being in contact with secondary mental health services if they had an open referral with secondary mental health services in the 5 years before their death using data from the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS).

This is contrast to the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) which evaluates patients in contact with Mental Health services in the year before their death using a separate data collection method.

As such, a separate report has been developed comparing patients dying by suicide who had contact in the year before their death using MHSDS and the NCISH reports to ensure that the figures in this publication are reliable. This report is available here Suicide in people with severe mental health problems - GOV.UK.