Prevention of harm especially to children and young people is one of the most important aims of all health professionals. The death by suicide of a young person is a tragedy and the ripples of effect of such a profoundly shocking event have been estimated to affect many dozens of people in each case.
Health professionals working with patients who take their own lives understand the complexity of the causal and trigger factors for suicide, and the delicate balance which needs to be struck in trying to help those patients to remain safe. It is often claimed that providing gender affirming medical interventions (puberty blockers and cross sex hormones) prevent suicide. Parents have been presented with a stark choice between ‘a dead child or a living trans child’.
Since the general election there have been hyperbolic claims made about access to puberty blockers and suicide rates in young people which have gone against all good practice on how to talk about suicide in our society.
Louis Appleby is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Manchester where he leads the Centre for Mental Health and Risk. He has for over 20yrs been at the centre of the work on suicide prevention in the UK and is Director of the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health He was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and received a Knighthood in the 2023 New Years Honours List.
It was reported by the BBC that the Health Secretary Wes Streeting asked Professor Appleby to examine the data following claims made by campaigners of a rise in suicide rates since puberty-blocking drugs were restricted at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust in 2020. Review says puberty blocker curb has not led to suicide rise – BBC News
Professor Appleby’s review was published on the Department of Health and Social Care website on 19th July 2024.
Professor Appleby examined figures provided by NHS England which were based on an internal audit by the Tavistock of deaths among current and former Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) patients. The figures represented 12 suicides in total, 2 per year on average, of whom half were under 18.
He concludes: ‘The data do not support the claim that there has been a large rise in suicide by young patients attending the gender services at the Tavistock since the High Court ruling in 2020 or after any other recent date…… The claims that have been placed in the public domain do not meet basic standards for statistical evidence’.
The point is made that multiple social and clinical risk factors for suicide were present in those who died by suicide and that the COVID 19 pandemic will have affected figures
Responsible discussion of suicide in the media follows guidelines such as those produced by The Samaritans Media_Guidelines_FINAL.pdf (samaritans.org). This an important strand of the national suicide prevention measures . The report states the ‘The way that this issue has been discussed on social media has been insensitive, distressing and dangerous, and goes against guidance on safe reporting of suicide’.
Professor Appleby goes further ‘It is unfortunate that puberty-blocking drugs have come to be seen as the touchstone issue, the difference between acceptance and non-acceptance. We need to move away from this perception among patients, staff and the public’.
This report from an expert in suicide data and prevention is sending a very clear message that young people are being placed at risk by activists only concerned with the promotion of their own agenda.