More than 360 nurses attempted suicide in 2022, says charity

Mental health charity the Laura Hyde Foundation (LHF) has revealed 366 nurses who used its services between January and December last year, had attempted suicide. This was a significant increase from 319 nurses in 2021.

“Emergency services are facing a new type of pandemic around the mental health of their workforce"

Liam Barnes

The charity, which supports nurses and other emergency workers in the name of nurse Laura Hyde who died by suicide in 2016, said it had also seen an increasing level of individuals suffering suicidal thoughts throughout 2022.

Data shared by the charity showed it had been contacted by some 3,644 individuals seeking mental health support last year and that 51% of those had said they were "engaging in or suffering" suicidal thoughts.

This again was a significant increase on 2021, when it received 2,711 calls, and 40% of the callers had "suffered or engaged in" suicidal thoughts.

Nurses were the emergency sector workers requiring the most support in 2022, with some 1,088 contacting the charity for help.

The charity also received 701 calls from midwives, 662 from medical students, 371 from hospital doctors and 326 from paramedics.

In addition, 231 calls were from GPs, 164 were from staff working in social care, 92 were police officers and nine were firefighters.

According to the data, those aged 28-37 were the most likely to contact the charity for mental health support (1,235) in 2022.

Liam Barnes, chair of the LHF and Ms Hyde’s cousin, said: “It's clear that following Covid-19, the emergency services are facing a new type of pandemic around the mental health of their workforce.

Liam Barnes

“Our data shows that people are starting to process what they have seen and given some of the resource constraints across this sector, stress, burnout, anxiety and many more conditions are significantly heightened.”

He added: “To have over 50% of the people we support contemplating suicidal ideation in the last 12 months shows a significant tipping point.”

Mr Barnes urged politicians and employers to “focus on this area urgently”.

While the charity had been able to deliver an “unprecedented” level of support to nurses and other frontline staff, Mr Barnes also called on employers to work with the charity to help expand this support further.

A recent survey by Nursing Times found two in five nursing staff say their mental health is worse now than it was during the peaks of the pandemic.

Our findings showed a nursing workforce that was “burnt out” and “worn down”, with more than 40% describing their current mental health and wellbeing as “bad” or “very bad”.