Using the HSE Incident Management Framework to Review Deaths Reported as Suspected Suicide within the Community Mental Health Setting, a Guide for Staff is new guide to support staff working in Mental Health Services when there is a death by suspected suicide of a person using Community Mental Health Services.
This guide has been developed by HSE National Quality and Patient Safety and HSE Access and Integration (Mental Health and the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP)) with the support of a multi-agency Working Group.
About this guide
This guide is for staff in Community Adult Mental Health and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services – those services that are provided by, or funded by the HSE. It aims to promote:
- A compassionate, caring and person centred approach to those affected in the aftermath of the death.
- Respect and sensitivity for the wishes and experiences of families/their relevant person(s) and staff throughout the incident management process.
- Awareness of HSE and community support services and resources available to those affected following the death of a service user by suspected suicide.
- A standardised and proportionate response to operating the HSE Incident Management Framework, across all services.
- Informed incident management decision making.
- Learning from the review of incidents that identifies good practices and areas for service improvement with regard to suicide prevention.
- Improved quality of data relating to suspected suicides that can contribute to mental health policy and suicide prevention strategies.
- Confidence and trust in our governance and incident management processes.
Policy context
This guide was developed in support of the HSE Patient Safety Strategy’s commitment to ‘Reducing Common Causes of Harm’. It is aligned with the HSEs Incident Management Framework, the National Standards for the Conduct of Reviews of Patient Safety Incidents, Connecting for Life, Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide, the HSE operational guidelines for Developing a Community Response to Suicide, and Sharing the Vision, a Mental Health Policy for Everyone.
The development of this guide delivers on:
- Sharing the Vision Recommendation 91: Significant improvements are required in the monitoring and reporting of levels and patterns of self-harm and suicidality among people attending mental health services to inform a comprehensive and timely service response to effectively reduce levels of harm and death.
- Connecting for Life Action 7.2.2: Collate and report on incidences of suicide through current and expanded health surveillance systems over the life of Connecting for Life.
