Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of suicides among women with autism.

David Mowat

The cross-Government suicide prevention strategy, ‘Preventing suicides in England: a cross-Government outcomes strategy to save lives’ highlights various groups of people for which tailored approaches to meet their mental health needs are required to address risk of suicide. This includes people who are in contact with mental health and/or social care services and people who may experience social factors such as social isolation and social exclusion, which may be experienced by people with autism.

We are looking at ways to strengthen the cross-Government suicide prevention strategy and will set out details later this year.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published a guideline in 2015, ‘Challenging behaviour and learning disabilities: prevention and interventions for people with learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges’ which recommends interventions to mitigate risks, including for people with autism, such as self-harm and suicide.