Manx suicide prevention strategy due in March, minister confirms

MHKs called for an update on the strategy in the House of Keys

A "complex and long-term" strategy to prevent suicide on the Isle of Man should be ready by next month, the cabinet office minister has said.

It comes after some MHKs criticised a lack of progress on the issue, which Tynwald resolved to address in 2020.

Official statistics show there were 156 deaths by suicide or of "undetermined intent" between 2006 and 2021 on the island, with a high of 22 in 2020.

Kate Lord-Brennan said the strategy had to include "accountable actions".

A draft of the document prepared by Public Health Isle of Man and other government groups had to be improved to make it clear which services were responsible for each area, she told the House of Keys.

"We do need to pin this down to specifics" to make a difference, Ms Lord-Brennan said.

Ann Corlett MHK accepted the pandemic had delayed progress after Tynwald's call for action in 2019, but said she was "struggling to understand why it has taken so long to develop".

A member of the group working on the strategy, Joney Faragher MHK, said the government needed "to act with the urgency that statistics warrant".

"If I felt confident the document I saw was fit and ready to go forward I absolutely would have supported it, but there was clearly some work that needed to be done", Ms Lord-Brennan said.