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National Confidential Inquiry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Jeremy Holmes*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter, email: j.a.holmes@btinternet.com
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Abstract

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Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an open-access article published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2015

It has been drawn to my attention that my article Reference Holmes1 implicitly criticises the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness (NCI), attributing to it comments which are rarely if ever found in its pages. In fact the NCI makes specific focused recommendations which, when implemented, reduce suicide rates. Reference While, Bickley, Roscoe, Windfuhr, Rahman and Shaw2 My remarks, admittedly anecdotal, based on my own and colleagues' experiences, were directed not so much at the NCI, but at internal hospital enquiries and the double standards which pervade the way psychiatric and non-psychiatric deaths are handled. I stand however by the view that administrative fragmentation, underfunding and de-professionalisation of psychiatry all play their part when people suffering from psychiatric illnesses kill themselves.

References

1 Holmes, J. Personal experience: Suicide and psychiatric care – a lament. BJPsych Bull 2015; 39: 45–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 While, D, Bickley, H, Roscoe, A, Windfuhr, K, Rahman, S, Shaw, J, et al. Implementation of mental health recommendations in England and Wales and suicide rates, 1997–2006: a cross-sectional before-and-after observational study. Lancet 2012; 379: 1005–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
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