This report presents statistics on deaths by suicide in people with severe mental health problems in England. This group is defined as people aged 18 to 74 who had been referred to secondary mental health services in the 5 years before they died. In this report, this group is described as the ‘mental health (MH) population’. Some of these people had only been referred to services, but a larger proportion had contact with community or outpatient services, or had stayed in hospital as an inpatient.

These statistics also compare suicide in the MH population to suicide in all other people aged 18 to 74, who are described as the ‘non-mental health (non-MH) population’.

Suicide has been added to the existing mortality statistics on the MH population aged 18 to 74. This adds intelligence to support understanding of mortality in this group and informs suicide prevention planning. Given the complexity of the new suicide statistics, this report provides context that aids interpretation.

The report also includes information on use of secondary mental health services in the year before death. It highlights some of the differences in service experience between those who die by suicide and those whose death is due to another cause.