Media centre

Monday 12 Sep 2016

Railway heroes save over 1,000 lives on Britain’s rail network in just a year

Region & Route:

| Southern: Wessex

| Southern

Railway staff, police officers and members of the public have saved over 1,100 people in 2015/16 having intervened in potential suicide attempts on Britain’s railway.

• Over 1,100 lives saved on the railway in the last year
• 112 of these in Network Rail’s Wessex region, which stretches from Waterloo to Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset
• Health Secretary commits an extra £1 billion in mental health services, which will benefit an additional one million people per year

Although the number of suicides on the railway nationally dropped by 12% in 2015/16, the figure to the south and west of London actually increased to 26 during the year, amounting to one every fortnight.

Stuart Kistruck, route managing director for Network Rail said, “Between our staff, the police and members of the public we’ve managed to save the lives of 112 people across the south and west of the country in the last year, but clearly there is still more we can all do.

“Through our partnership with the Samaritans, Network Rail has trained more than 11,000 rail staff and British Transport Police officers on Samaritans courses, of which 859 were in our region. The training has equipped them with the skills and confidence to identify and approach vulnerable people on the railway and lead them to a safe place.”

“To really make a difference we want to help get to the root of the problem. Suffering in silence can be fatal, which is why we’re supporting the National Suicide Prevention Alliance’s (NSPA) #ItsOkayToTalk campaign.”

Timed to coincide with World Suicide Prevention Day, leaders from a number of organisations spearheading suicide prevention met at Network Rail’s London headquarters to challenge the taboo that exists, particularly among men, of talking about suicide.

The roundtable was attended by representatives from: the Department of Health, British Transport Police, Samaritans, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), Rethink and Network Rail, who discussed ways to drive down the suicide rates further, progress to date and what could be done differently in future.

Chairing the event, Network Rail’s chief executive and deputy chair of the Rail Delivery Group, Mark Carne said, “Any death on the railway is a tragedy which has a real emotional impact on the family and friends involved, and on our staff and customers. It’s a complex issue which the whole of society needs to work together to address.

“Men are three times more likely than women to die by suicide – it’s the single biggest killer of men aged under 50 in the UK. A large proportion of my 36,000-stong workforce are men and I want them to know its ok to talk – we must break down the taboo of talking about suicide. If anyone feels like they need support, it’s ok to ask for help.”

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said, “I pay tribute to the dedicated staff of Network Rail who are leading the way in preventing suicide. As a country, we tragically lose 13 people to suicide every day, and nearly three quarters of those people had no contact with NHS mental health services in the previous year.

“Though we are making progress, as one of the first countries in the world to launch waiting times for mental health services, giving people a guarantee on how quickly they can expect to be seen, we want to go much further. Our plans will see a million more people benefiting from mental health services every year, with £1 billion of extra money being invested to ensure everyone can get the help they need.”

ENDS

The numbers:

• 11,000 rail staff and British Transport Police officers have been trained on Samaritans courses
• More than 1,100 prevented suicide attempts on the railway (2015/16)
• 252 suicides/suspected suicides on the railway (2015/16). That’s 35 fewer suicides than the previous year (12% reduction) and the first fall in three years
• The government has a target of a 10% reduction in suicides by 2020/21
• 80% of people who die by suicide on the railway are men
• Men are three and a half times more likely to take their own lives than women
• Suicide is the biggest single killer of men aged under 50 in the UK
• Only 28% of people who died by suicide in England between 2003 and 2013 were in contact with mental health services
• In 2015/16, 69 people (one in five) who attempted to take their lives on the railway survived. Most were left with life changing injuries

Social media

• Join the debate and use #ItsOkayToTalk on Twitter

Speakers at the roundtable included:

• Jonathon Marron – director of mental health, Department for Health
• Mark Carne – chief executive, Network Rail, and deputy chair of the Rail Delivery Group (RDG)
• Rachel Watters, suicide prevention, Network Rail
• Neena Naylor – train dispatcher, Network Rail
• Ken Young – chief inspector, British Transport Police
• Jane Powell – chief executive officer, Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM)
• Brian Dow – director of Rethink Mental Illness, and co-chair of National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA)
• Jacqui Morrissey – head of external affairs, Samaritans and co-chair of National Suicide Prevention Alliance (NSPA)
• Poona Bell – executive editor, Huffington Post