An evaluation of the City of London Bridge Watch suicide prevention initiative
Evaluation Completed December 2025
Bridge Watch Full Report (PDF: 68 pages)
Bridge Watch Brief Qualitative Report (PDF: 12 pages)
Woodrow, N and others. Evaluation of a bridge-based suicide intervention programme: findings from a qualitative study with volunteers and professional staff. Published in BMC Public Health 26, 1267 (2026). Available from https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-26849-9
What does the evaluation mean for Local Government?
One third of suicides in the UK occur in public places. Effective methods of preventing suicides are an important public health measure. There is little published evidence on whether volunteer-based interventions are effective. Our study will help local authorities who are trying to prevent suicides in public places to make evidence-informed decisions about what kinds of preventive measures they should invest in.
What does the evaluation mean for the Public?
There is evidence from around the world that many suicides are preventable by well-designed measures to restrict access to the means of suicide or to intervene at the critical moment. In London, having trained volunteers who can intervene when people might be contemplating suicide may be an effective way of preventing suicide, but we don’t yet know how well it works. The research will help to fill this gap and provide evidence that the authorities in London and elsewhere can use in their suicide prevention work.
How are the public involved in the project?
We have designed the research in close collaboration with stakeholders involved in commissioning and delivering Bridge Watch and we will be gathering evidence from the lay volunteers.
Lay Summary of Research
The Bridge watch Programme is a new suicide prevention initiative delivered by teams of volunteers. The specially trained volunteers provide a physical presence at the areas around and on the five bridges of the City of London and try to engage or intervene with anybody indicating intent to enter the water.
Our evaluation study was designed in close collaboration with colleagues in the local authority public health team and Bridge watch. We will use routinely collected data on suicide attempts and related incidents to see whether the numbers go up or down after Bridge watch has begun.
We will speak to volunteers and other people involved in delivering the program to understand their perspectives and experiences. To gain additional insights, we will ask the volunteers to keep a diary recording their experiences of carrying out the patrols.
We hope that our research will provide the Bridge Watch team with evidence that helps them to understand the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the programme. As well as helping to shape service delivery and future commissioning decisions in the City of London, our findings will help to inform prevention work in other areas which are trying to prevent suicide in public places.
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Local Government / Partner(s)
City of London and Hackney Public Health Team: Claire Giraud
PHIRST Fusion Research Team
Queen’s University Belfast: Dr Leandro Garcia
University of Glasgow: Professor Peter Craig, Dr Olivia Hamilton
University of Sheffield: Dr Nicholas Woodrow, Ms Eleanor Holding
Newcastle University: Dr Bronia Arnott
NIHR Funding Award: NIHR162880