A Zero Suicide approach has lead to a dramatic reduction in the number of suicides at HMP Liverpool.
Professor Joe Rafferty, of Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, said there had been two suicides in a two-year period. Mersey Care took over Mental Health Services at the jail in 2018 following a damning review of the previous health trust.
It found Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust to be “ill-equipped” to deal with prison healthcare.
Between April 2013 and December 2014 there were six suicides, the review found, while the latest visit to the Walton jail by HM Inspectorate of Prisons in 2019 noted another six self-inflicted deaths since its previous inspection in 2017.
Speaking at the Festival of Leadership and Learning, Prof Rafferty said the trend had reversed and the latest figures showed just two deaths by suicide in a two-year period.
He said: “Now that’s two deaths too many I have to say.
“But I suppose if we were to roll forward and what history had looked like then we would have expected somewhere between seven and eight deaths in that two-year period.
“And we have reduced that to two, so a pretty dramatic reduction I would say.”