A council is hiring a new mental health officer to help address above-average suicide rates. Essex County Council is offering £37,500 for a public mental health and suicide prevention officer. The successful applicant would work in the northeast of the county, where in Tendring and Colchester, the suicide rate was significantly above the England average. Coroners have previously criticized mental health services in the county. The job advertisement read: “Suicide rates in some parts of Essex have historically been higher than the national average, so this role presents a real opportunity for the right candidate to make a difference.
” According to data from the Office for National Statistics, 13.8 people for every 100,000 in Tendring took their lives each year between 2019-2021, and 15 per 100,000 in Colchester. The average figure for England was 10.6 during that period. The job advert said the candidate would work with the North East Essex Suicide Prevention Programme, working with the police, hospitals and GPs – including leading on activities and projects – to help improve collaboration. Earlier this year, Essex County Council was criticised by area coroner Sonia Hayes over the death of Molly-Ann Sergeant in West Mersea near Colchester in 2020.
The council did not act on “appropriate referrals” by the NHS, conduct “required assessments” while she was a mental health inpatient and did not appoint a social worker until she was discharged, Ms Hayes said. Essex, in response, said it implemented additional training and changed some of its assessment policies. Another Essex area coroner, Sean Horstead, last year criticised care from NHS mental health staff given to a 66-year-old man from Walton-on-the-Naze. NHS England’s former national clinical director for mental health, Dr Geraldine Strathdee OBE, is leading a statutory inquiry looking into the deaths of “up to” 2,000 people who were cared for by the Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust between 2000 and 2020.
