New additions to the toolkit are an annual audit tool for trusts to fill out to advise boards and staff about progress on suicide prevention, and a monthly checklist for ward managers, as well as new standards of best practice. These reflect both recent changes in practice and the fact that although there has been a fall in inpatient suicides over the last ten years, there is still concern surrounding suicides while patients are on leave from the ward and around transitions from inpatient to community services.
The general audit tool will be used to monitor the suicide prevention efforts of an organisation and to identify areas for improvement. The ward manager’s checklist (which will take about one hour to complete) allows the assessment of the care of individual at-risk patients against the eight standards of good suicide prevention practice. Both the general audit and checklist are completed using randomly selected case note reviews.
The NPSA standards include ensuring that at-risk patients are all allocated to the Care Programme Approach, that the ward environment is regularly assessed for potential aids to self harm, that follow-up is made promptly following discharge from a ward, that carers and family members can contact the ward team if consent has been given, and that post incident reviews are conducted properly.
For more information visit the NPSA website.