Suicide: Men
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure GPs are adequately trained and equipped to identify and respond to men at risk of suicide.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock
Our first ever Men’s Health Strategy, launched on 19 November 2025, announced the Suicide Prevention Support Pathfinders programme which will invest up to £3.6 million over three years in areas of England where middle-aged men face the greatest risk of suicide.
Locally, integrated care boards are responsible for working with local authorities to implement local multiagency action plans. National Health Service guidance, including the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, strongly encourages systems to ensure staff complete suicide awareness training, such as the Zero Suicide Alliance and Staying Safe from Suicide. Further information on the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, staff suicide awareness training, and NHS England’s Staying Safe from Suicide guidance is available at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/suicide-prevention-strategy-for-england-2023-to-2028
https://stormskillstraining.com/2025/04/30/staying-safe-from-suicide/
https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/staying-safe-from-suicide/
The mental health topic guide within the general practitioner (GP) training curriculum also highlights the need for GPs understand and differentiate between stress, distress, mood disorder, and diagnosable mental illness. GPs should be able to communicate effectively, professionally, and sensitively with patients and assess risks to the patient’s safety. The assessment of risk and prevention of death by suicide is seen as a common part of GP work. The guide frames suicide as a critical component of risk assessment and patient safety. It states that GPs must assess risk as a priority, including risk of self-harm and suicide. However, the curriculum explicitly cautions that there are no validated scales that predict suicide and that clinical assessment must rely on history, context, and professional judgement.
The curriculum also expects GPs to understand the epidemiology of and risk factors for suicide, which would include the risk in men, as well as associations with depression and other mental illness, substance misuse, and adverse life events.
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