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Nurses' views sought on suicide prevention in Northern Ireland

Nurses' views are sought for a consultation into Northern Ireland's suicide prevention strategy.
Comforting distressed patient

Nurses in Northern Ireland are being encouraged to contribute to a government consultation on suicide prevention. 

Health minister Michelle O’Neill said it is unacceptable that on average 274 people die by suicide each year in the country.

Improvement aims

The Protect Life 2 strategy, which was launched on 9 September, aims to prevent suicide by people in crisis, improve the identification and response to suicidal behaviour and support those bereaved by suicide.

There is also a focus on repeated self-harm in the strategy. 

Ms O’Neill added that she is committed to tackling health inequalities around suicide, with the most deprived areas having three times the suicide rate of the least deprived areas.

The RCN is encouraging its members to contribute to their response to the consultation by emailing john.knape@rcn.org.uk.


 Further information

Suicide prevention strategy consultation

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