Suicide in young people often follows the accumulation of different vulnerabilities and adversities over time.1,2 Risk factors can include:
Case reviews highlighted how professionals didn’t always recognise and connect different risk factors or look for opportunities to hear the child’s voice.
Learning from case reviews underlines the importance of understanding the cumulative effect of different risk factors, speaking to children about their world and promoting positive, trusting relationships in children’s lives.
References
Sleap, V. et al (2021) Suicide in children and young people: National Child Mortality Database Programme thematic report: data from April 2019 to March 2020 (PDF). Bristol: National Child Mortality Database (NCMD).Our series of thematic briefings highlight the learning from case reviews conducted when a child dies, or is seriously harmed, as a result of abuse or neglect. Each briefing focuses on a different topic or learning for specific sectors, pulling together key risk factors and practice recommendations.
Find out how you can apply the lessons from case reviews and improve your practice to help protect children and young people.
Browse through our list of child safeguarding practice reviews, serious case reviews, significant case reviews and child practice reviews which were added to the National case review repository in the last five years.
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Learn when mental health issues become safeguarding concerns and how to support the children and young people you work with.
What to do if you have concerns that a child you know through your work or volunteering has experienced abuse and neglect.
