Protecting the Suicidal Patient

Neil Allen(1)

Savage v South Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust [2007] EWCA Civ 1375

Introduction
Suicide prevention is said to be a key national priority for mental health services in England and Wales.(2) Nonetheless, over 1300 patients already known to those very services commit suicide every year;(3) an average of almost four a day.

Around 450 take their own lives whilst, or soon after, receiving inpatient treatment.(4) Providing mental health care is an inherently risky business. Indeed, protecting mentally ill patients from themselves is often the very justification for depriving them of their liberty under the Mental Health Act 1983.

But how far must public authorities go in safeguarding society’s interest in preserving the sanctity of human life?

Footnotes:
(1) Barrister, Young Street Chambers (Manchester), and Clinical Teaching Fellow, University of Manchester.

(2) The Department of Health aims to reduce the death rate from suicide by at least 20% by 2010 (National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, Department of Health, 2002). This followed its White Paper, Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation (1999) (Cm 4386).

(3) See Avoidable Deaths: five year report of the national confidential inquiry into suicide and homicide by people with mental illness (University of Manchester, December 2006) at pp14 and 32. This can be contrasted with the 92 suicides in prison custody in 2007 (Ministry of Justice announcement 1st January 2008).

(4) Meehan J. et al., ‘Suicide in mental health in-patients and within 3 months of discharge’ (2006) 188 British Journal of Psychiatry 129 at 133. During the study period, an average of 180-190 patients per year died whilst receiving inpatient care and around 275 patients per year died within three months of being discharged from hospital.

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