During discussions about the Health & Wellbeing Strategy at the last full council meeting (20th March), Cllr Chris Welsford, explained that as a Coastguard, he had to deal with the aftermath of what is sometimes “the council’s failings” to do “everything we could in order to prevent that from happening”.
He advised that during a recent meeting with Cllr Stephens and two council directors, he’d asked why the Isle of Wight council does not engage in a Suicide Audit on the Island and what would need to be done to ensure that the council could engage in such an audit in the future.
Pulling together agencies to investigate
Cllr Welsford explained that the Suicide Audit would pull together the work of Coroner’s Court and other agencies, as part of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy, to find out why people commit suicide.
A nationally recognised requirement
He said he would like the council to recognise the need for a Suicide Audit, which is a nationally recognised requirement and which many other local authorities and PCTs engage in.
Indeed, the Isle of Wight council engaged in them up until 2005, he told the meeting.
Campaign Against Living Miserably
Cllr Pugh added that he had recently met with a resident who heads up the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) who was keep to support the council’s efforts “in this regard” on the Island.
Find out more about CALM by visiting their Website
Image: Quinn Anya under CC BY 2.0
