Joint statement regarding an inaccurate suicide statistic circulating on twitter this week

A joint statement from Samaritans, Zero Suicide Alliance, Support After Suicide Partnership and Thrive LDN regarding an inaccurate suicide statistic circulating on twitter this week

An inaccurate statistic relating to suicide figures circulated on Twitter on 29/06/20 and was shared across the platform.

Following investigation from BBC reporters, it has been suggested the incorrect statistic was misinterpreted from reporting from ITV relating to mental health charity SANE, who identified a 200% increase in calls to their helpline since lockdown began.

In a statement to the BBC, the Samaritans confirmed there is currently no evidence of a rise in suicide rates and as yet, there is no national real time surveillance system in place. The last release of suicide statistics from the Office of National Statistics was in September 2019 which thus pre-dates the lockdown period.

While several sources have now addressed the inaccuracies of the tweet/tweets in question, the spread of this misinformation remains of concern and highlights the importance of on-going vigilance to help identify and prevent similar instances of misleading statistics circulating on social media going forwards.

Further fact-checking information is available here: https://twitter.com/i/events/1277782419999842304