Suicide Prevention and Mental Wellbeing
Improving mental wellbeing and preventing suicide is a key priority across South Yorkshire. Through our Learning Disability and Autism (LDA) Programme, the South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) works with local authorities, NHS organisations, voluntary and community sector partners, people with lived experience, and families to ensure that suicide prevention approaches are inclusive, accessible, and responsive to the needs of people with a learning disability and autistic and neurodivergent people.
The programme has been informed by learning from LeDeR reviews, wider evidence, and engagement with people who have shared their experiences of accessing support and services.
Learning from completed LeDeR reviews and wider evidence has highlighted that autistic people can face an increased risk of suicide and may experience barriers in accessing timely and appropriate support.
Our wider suicide prevention work focuses on improving awareness of suicide risk, strengthening communication and reasonable adjustments, promoting autism-informed and neurodivergent-informed practice, and ensuring that support is accessible to people whose needs may not be recognised by traditional approaches. This includes supporting professionals to recognise distress, respond appropriately, and make services more inclusive and person-centred.
We are committed to working collaboratively across South Yorkshire to reduce health inequalities, improve access to support, and ensure that learning is translated into meaningful action. By bringing together lived experience, professional expertise and system-wide partnership working, we aim to create a more responsive and inclusive approach to suicide prevention for people with a learning disability, autistic people and the wider neurodivergent community.
Current Areas of Focus
- Development and implementation of the South Yorkshire Neurodiversity Suicide Prevention Toolkit, informed by the experiences of autistic people, families, supporters and professionals
- Embedding learning from LeDeR reviews into suicide prevention practice
- Promoting neurodivergent-informed approaches to safety planning and crisis support
- Supporting professionals through guidance, resources and training
- Working with partners to improve accessibility, communication and reasonable adjustments across services
- Ensuring the voices of people with lived experience, families and carers shape future developments
Developing a New Neurodiversity Suicide Prevention Toolkit
As part of this work, South Yorkshire ICB is developing a new Neurodiversity Suicide Prevention Toolkit.
This work builds on previous engagement and feedback, which highlighted the need for a broader, more inclusive resource that reflects the experiences of autistic and neurodivergent people and those who support them.
While the toolkit is intended to provide broader guidance that can be applied across neurodivergent communities, this initial phase of development is focused on gathering feedback from autistic people and those who support them. Learning from this engagement will help shape the first version of the toolkit and inform future development.
We are inviting autistic people, family members, carers, supporters and professionals to share their views through the questionnaires below. Your feedback will help shape the final toolkit and help ensure it provides practical guidance for supporting autistic and neurodivergent people who may be experiencing distress or crisis.
About the Questionnaires
The experiences of autistic people are central to this phase of toolkit development. To ensure the toolkit is useful and relevant, we also want to hear from family members, supporters and professionals.
You do not need a formal autism diagnosis to take part. We welcome responses from people who identify as autistic, are exploring whether they may be autistic, are waiting for an assessment, or have self-identified as autistic.
You will not be asked to describe specific distressing experiences or traumatic events.
We want to hear from:
- Autistic people, including those without a formal diagnosis
- Family members, friends and supporters
- Practitioners working with autistic people across South Yorkshire
The questionnaires ask about topics such as:
- What distress or crisis may look or feel like
- What helps during periods of distress or crisis
- What can make things more difficult
- How practitioners can communicate and provide effective support
- Examples of positive experiences and good practice
- Information, resources and guidance that should be included in the toolkit
The questionnaires include a combination of tick-box and free-text questions, allowing you to share as much or as little information as you wish.
Before You Take Part
- Taking part is voluntary
- The questionnaires are anonymous
- Most questions are optional
- The questionnaires should take around 5–10 minutes to complete
- You can complete more than one questionnaire if more than one applies to you
The questionnaires begin with a small number of questions to help ensure you are completing the most appropriate questionnaire.
Accessibility and Support
You can ask someone you trust to support you in completing a questionnaire. They can help you understand the questions, record your answers, or complete the questionnaire alongside you.
If someone is supporting you, your answers should reflect your own views and experiences.
Alternative formats, including paper or Word versions, can be requested using the contact details below.
Complete a Questionnaire
The questionnaires will close on Friday 6 November 2026.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to share your views. Your feedback will help shape a toolkit that supports autistic people and contributes to more inclusive approaches to supporting the wider neurodivergent community.
Under the Equality Act 2010, Health and Social Care organisations have a duty to make changes in their approach or provision, called reasonable adjustments, to ensure that services are as accessible to people with a learning disability as they are for everyone else. This duty aims to address the recognition that people with a learning disability may have equal access to care and services, but without specific adjustments being made, that access may not be equitable.
NHS England has created the Reasonable Adjustment Digital Flag in the NHS Spine to enable health professionals to record, share and view details of reasonable adjustments across the NHS, wherever the patient is treated. The flag indicates that reasonable adjustments are required for an individual and optionally includes details of any significant impairments, underlying conditions and key adjustments that should be considered.
The flag aims to enable:
- Clear identification of all people for whom reasonable adjustments may be required.
- Identification of people with impairments including learning disability or autism.
- Identification and sharing of key adjustments that will help a care episode go well or happen at all.
- Consistent visibility and structure of the information, wherever a person is treated in health and social care.
Examples of reasonable adjustments:
|
Appointments |
Quiet place to wait |
Help to check in at an appointment |
Easy Read Information |
|
A patient may need a longer appointment to understand the information given to them |
The waiting room may be too noisy or distracting and a patient may need a quiet place to wait. Could they wait in the car? |
A patient may need a member of staff to check them into their appointment |
Providing appointment letters in easy read can support patients to understand why they have been asked to attend their appointments |
People with a learning disability often have poorer physical and mental health than other people. This does not need to be the case.
It is important that everyone over the age of 14 who is on their doctor's learning disability register has an annual health check.
Please click the link below to find out about annual health checks.
If your child has a learning disability, it is important they get the right help and support so they can live their best life. Organisations like the NHS are here to help.
If your child is on the Learning Disability Register, they will be able to get extra health support from your Doctor (GP) Practice.
Click the link below to find out more about the Learning Disability Register.
Stopping over medication of people with a learning disability and autistic people (STOMP) is a national NHS England work programme to stop the inappropriate prescribing of psychotropic medications, an identified priority in the NHS Long Term Plan.
Click the link below to find out more about STOMP.
The Down Syndrome Act 2022 legally recognises people with Down’s syndrome as a distinct group, requiring the government to issue statutory guidance for health, social care, education, and housing bodies to better meet their specific needs.
Although the Act came into force in March 2024, the supporting guidance has yet to be released. Following multiple delays, the UK government has now committed to publishing the draft guidance for public consultation in summer 2025, with final guidance to follow after consultation.
This upcoming policy aims to improve services and support across sectors, with stakeholders encouraged to engage in the consultation process.
Further Resources
