![]() Given then that varying COVID-19 restrictions look set to be with us for a considerable time to come – and the widespread impact on people’s mental wellbeing this may have – access to intervention and consistent support must be a priority. ![]() My colleagues and I are now examining data which suggests detentions fell in some areas during the initial lockdown period. Tragically, two of the women involved in my research, who had both survived numerous previous suicide attempts, have since died. Without alternative readily available suicide prevention measures in the community, Section 136 is critical to saving lives. Loneliness can exacerbate conditions such as depression and anxiety. Heather said police officers had sometimes persuaded her away from a dangerous situation and to return to safety without having to be detained. Yet in the short term, the responses of police and health care professionals also made differences. My study found that long-term, reliable support was the key to helping to ease the impact of trauma for some of these women. As Kate said: “I have a total lack of hope.” This had left them struggling to believe they had a future. I found that past traumatic experiences that had not been addressed had fractured their views of themselves and others. Surviving short and long-termĪs part of my research, I also interviewed six women who had histories of multiple suicide attempts and Mental Health Act detentions. Overall, more than 90% of all the repeat detentions related to suicide or self-harm and repeats made up one-third of all Section 136 detentions in the two counties during this time. Each person in this group was detained between six and 19 times, sometimes more than once within a week. Twenty-two people (18 women and four men) had the most detentions (203 in total). Having less social contact was shown to have the strongest influence on women’s wellbeing – more so than caring and family responsibilities or work and financial pressures.Ĭhart showing numbers of males and females detained on multiple occasions. Ongoing research from the University of Essex indicates this has particularly been the case for women, whose mental wellbeing has declined by twice as much as men’s during this time. Studies already show that the pandemic is having a profound effect on many people’s mental health. It will be some time before accurate UK data on suicides during lockdown is available, but in obeying the instruction to stay home, some people may have been deprived of the opportunity for intervention. This increase in female self-inflicted deaths comes at the same time as concerns the pandemic may increase the number of people who attempt to take their own lives. Men have long been recognised as being most at risk of suicide, but the Office for National Statistics recently reported the highest annual rate of female suicides in the UK since 2004. ![]()
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