Many NHS trusts in England are using unvalidated suicide risk assessment tools, despite NICE advising against them, which in some cases is putting patients at risk, researchers have found.1
Suicide is a worldwide problem with 700 000 such deaths every year. A UN sustainable development goal aims to reduce suicide mortality by a third by 2030. But while there are many assessment tools that attempt to determine suicide risk, there is little evidence that they accurately detect those at highest risk.
NICE guidance on self-harm, updated in 2022, states that …