Louis Appleby

@ncish.bsky.social were appointed by the Department for Education to conduct an independent national review of suspected suicides in HE students. The aim was to promote learning from incidents, identify broad lessons around mental ill-health & suicide in HE students & to help prevent future deaths.

The report from our national review of higher education student suicide deaths was published today.
sites.manchester.ac.uk/ncish/report...

Read about our findings with comments from Prof Sir Louis Appleby and Dr Cathryn Rodway here: @manchester.ac.uk
www.manchester.ac.uk/about/news/b...

Today - 21/05/2025 - BBC Sounds News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

The Today programme featured Manchester research into support provided to bereaved families of students thought to have died by suicide.

‪Features research by @proflappleby.bsky.social sky.social and Cathryn Rodway.

Listen from 13:18
www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Finally watched #NickelBoys, disturbing story of racial injustice, based on real events, imaginatively told.

From Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer winning novel.

Nominated for this year’s Best Film #Oscar. Should have won, IMHO.

Suicide by young people should never be a slogan or a campaigning point. It is the devastating reality for 200 families/year in England.

Beautiful day at Llyn Llywenan on #Anglesey. Star species:

Red kite
3 whimbrel
7 species of warbler - Cetti’s, reed, sedge & willow warblers, whitethroat, blackcap & chiffchaff.

#biodiversity @angbirdnews.bsky.social

Llyn Llywenan on #Anglesey at its best today.

Snow goose
70+ whimbrels
2 otters
Green veined white butterfly
Male marsh harrier, common sandpiper, countless warblers.

#Biodiversity @angbirdnews.bsky.social

Near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance for England Official statistics in development on near to real-time suspected suicide surveillance (nRTSSS) for England.

The graph also reminds us of the apparent peak in January 2024 - it reversed the next month.

ONS & real time figures are both invaluable. But no data source is perfect.

@OHID report here:

www.gov.uk/government/c...

Graphs showing no change can still tell important stories.

New real time suicide figs from @OHID suggest little change since start of 2022.

Adding to evidence the 2023 rise reported by ONS last year was an artefact of how deaths are registered.

Great time of year at Llyn Llywenan, birds arriving for summer or passing through.

Star species today:
3 swifts - my first of 2025
2 common sandpipers (photo)
2 whimbrel
6 species of warbler inc Sedge (another 1st this year) & Cetti’s

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

Reminder that claims about suicide by trans young people are dangerous.

Alarming rhetoric, unevidenced claims, lurid language - they carry risk.

Vital message that we should all sign up to: support is available.

We should all be concerned about mental health of young people whose distress is expressed through gender identity.

But they need reassurance re the #SupremeCourt judgment, not alarming rhetoric.

Not hostility & prejudice but support.

And the best mental health care we can offer.

That is exactly what they are!

There are so many fantastic wildlife sites across UK, like RSPB Marshside on Lancs coast today.

Star species:

Large numbers of avocets - photo, with greenshank.

Spoonbill.

Spotted redshank.

Grasshopper warbler.

#biodiversity

Extraordinary health care episode in new series of #BlackMirror. Such an inventive programme.

Spoiler alert & TW: the ending is bleak.

Surely the question to any politician is about reading the evidence, not watching Netflix.

Or at least hearing from people who work in the field.

No disrespect to the makers of #Adolescence.

New suicide figs from ONS make it likely there was no increase in 2023. It was more likely an effect of when deaths were registered.

Media & campaign groups highlighted this “increase”. Undermining efforts by countless committed people.

None has yet acknowledged it probably isn’t true.

Great wildlife on #Anglesey earlier this week:

Mediterranean gulls at the
lagoon at Cemlyn Bay.

Cattle egrets in flooded field at Valley.

White fronted goose, a visitor from Siberia, at Cors Ddyga reserve.

Grey seals off shore at Cemlyn.

#biodiversity

Indeed! Greater or lesser, do you think?

Changing seasons this week at Llyn Llywenan on #Anglesey.

Scaup, unusual wintering duck, turned up on 7/4 (photo), common sandpiper also.
Red kite, marsh harrier & Cetti’s warbler on 6/4

And my 1st sand martin & swallow of 2025.

@angbirdnews.bsky.social

None of this changes the need to bring down the suicide rate.

To reduce the >5000 suicides that occur every year in England.

To focus on the economic pressures that many are facing - whether or not the rate is rising.

Suicide is preventable: no suicide rate is acceptable. //

So what should we make of the claim that the suicide rate in 2023 was the highest this century?

The new figures suggest it isn’t true.

Rates have been higher since 2018 but are not strictly comparable with what went before.

There is though an unusual 10% jump in 2018, the year the legal definition of suicide was widened.

Wider definition = higher figures, obviously.

This week’s @ONS figures for suicide occurrences go up to 2023.

And the pattern is different from the rise that made headlines.

From 2018-2023 there is no rise - the trend in these years is flat. The 2023 rate is actually ⬇️, but this will likely correct with late inquests.

But if the inquest system is disrupted - for example, during Covid - discrepancies arise.

Delays & catch-ups can give the impression of suicides falling or rising.

To explain:

Annual suicide rates from @ONS are based on when a death is registered, not when it occurs.

The time to registration is around 6 months on average.

In general, the two figures - registrations & occurrences - aren’t very different.

New suicide data for England just published, updated to cover all of 2024.

But the most revealing figures are about the much-discussed rise in 2023.

Because it probably didn’t happen.

Short 🧵 & TW.

ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

New national figs on suicide/self-harm & sexual orientation published this week by @ONS. Rates 2-3 times higher in “LGB+” groups based on responses in Census.

Raised risk varies by age, sex & ethnicity.

ons.gov.uk/releases/selfh…