A call for greater support for trans communities was among issues raised at the latest meeting of our West Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Advisory Network (SPAN).
The June meeting of our quarterly network was attended by 108 people and involved a packed agenda covering suicide prevention in trans communities, engaging male staff in mental health support, sharing views of those with lived experience on mental health services and looking at suicide prevention from a GP’s perspective.
Speakers with both lived experience and professional mental health experience took part in the first discussion on suicide prevention and trans people – a community which the meeting heard experiences disproportionately poorer mental health compared to the general population, with one study finding 84% of trans people experience suicidal ideation.
A key issue raised was the many barriers trans people face, including accessing gender affirming healthcare, where waiting lists are up to five years long.
Louie Stafford, founder of Our House, an LGBTQ+ community hub in Wakefield, and MD of Learnest CIC, said: “That is a huge issue that virtually everyone we work with experiences. There’s a lot of pressure in society for trans people to legitimise their gender identity through accessing routes of medicalisation around trans identity but the options to access that healthcare is few and far between.”
He said this leads to a feeling of being “in limbo” with no support, adding: “We need to better understand these issues so we can be there for people when they need us most.”
Louie said another barrier is the day-to-day discrimination: “The sense of walking down the street can be scary, can be traumatic, you can experience hate crimes. A lot of our communities experience regular, active discrimination.”
Ash Dickson, mental health and wellbeing coordinator for Yorkshire MESMAC, said: “There is a gap between where suicide prevention and the trans community can be and where it is now” and called for a “universal baseline of knowledge” within primary care as a suggestion for how to help and support the trans population.
The need for better data collection around health outcomes of trans people was also raised, as well as improving access to services and early intervention.
The SPAN meeting also heard an update from Liaquat Ali on the WY HCP’s ‘Men in Health’ project which aims to engage male staff in health, social care and voluntary sector with mental health and wellbeing support.
It is funded by, and is an integral part of, the WY Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub.
Ali, of Touchstone, the charity commissioned to deliver the project, personally supports those who need it and the project has organised football tournaments as well as peer support groups and regular drop-in sessions – reaching 1,279 men in the first nine months.
Ali said: “It’s a very personal service that we offer. We try to break down as many barriers that will prevent men from accessing services as possible,” he said, adding: “Nothing is off the table when it comes to supporting men.”
The meeting also saw the first online screening of the film ‘Preventing suicide: communication, support and follow-up’, created by people with lived experience, pictured right, of being impacted by suicide, to share their thoughts on good practice within mental health services.
The work is part of a ‘coproduction’ project commissioned by West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP)’s Suicide Prevention Programme and led by Leeds Mind, to bring the voice of lived experience into suicide prevention decision-making and planning.
Dozens of SPAN members commented to praise the film and pledged to share within their own organisations across health, care and beyond.
Final speaker on the day was Dr Gwyn Elias, a Leeds GP and NHSEI Personal Care Regional Clinical Lead (NEY) who spoke on the importance of personalised care in primary care.
She cited UK research which found 43 per cent of middle-aged men who died by suicide had had a consultation with their GP in the three months before death – for reasons including having a major physical illness, recent self-harm, a mental health problem or work-related issues.
She said: “What we do in general practice is really important because we could perhaps modify somebody’s outcome before they actually become suicidal.”
Gwyn, who said she always asks patients twice about self-harm or suicidal ideation in mental health reviews, said, for her, personalised care “is founded in the principle of person-centred care, where people feel in control of their own health and are supported to live well”.
She highlighted social prescribers and community-based support as vital to this model of care in primary care networks. Our new Workforce Development Facilitator will be targeting social prescribers across West Yorkshire over the next 20 months.
Speakers' resources:
Suicide prevention and trans communities
- Webinar: Suicide prevention and trans communities
- Organisations: Yorkshire MESMAC; Peer Support - Leeds Mind; TransActual; Mind Your Head - LGBTQ+ mental health and wellbeing in Calderdale and beyond; The Brunswick Centre; TransWakefield; TransLeeds.
- List of LGBTQ+ terms (stonewall.org.uk)
- GP grab sheet - resource for GPs in supporting trans people
- Good practice guide on monitoring sexual orientation and trans status
- Study into overlap between autism and gender diversity
Engaging men: learning through the Men In Health project
- Slides of Ali's talk
- Webinar: Engaging men: learning through the Men In Health project
- WY Staff Mental Health and Wellbeing Hub website
Coproduction film: People with lived experience tell us how to get it right
- Slides from Arlie's talk
- Webinar: Coproduction film: People with lived experience tell us how to get it right
- Main film: Preventing suicide: Communications, support and follow-up
- Shorter films (same content as main film, broken down): Communication; support; folllow-up
- Downloadable discussion pack (powerpoint presentation)
Suicide prevention in primary care from a GP perspective