An Evaluation of a National Rail Suicide Prevention Programme

Abstract: This paper describes the rationale for the introduction of a GB national rail suicide prevention programme, which was introduced in 2010 with the aim of reducing the number of suicides on the rail network by 20%. The programme has three key streams of work; prevention activities (designed to reduce the level of suicide), post-vention activities (actions to reduce the impact of suicide) and activities to support partnership working between the key organisations involved in suicide prevention and each of these will be described in detail. This paper will describe the challenges of, and approaches to, the evaluation of such a complex (multiple activities and multiple agencies) and evolving programme. The paper will also present key findings from the evaluation in terms of the impact on the numbers rail suicides, the numbers of interventions, post incident management, improvements in partnership working, and staff attitudes to suicides.

Keywords: Suicide, Prevention, Human Factors, Evaluation

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe100750

Cite this paper:

​