The Scottish Labour leader has backed calls for a public inquiry into a Dundee psychiatric unit.
The city as a whole has suffered the biggest rise in suicides in Scotland, with a 61% surge in a year, according to official figures.
The Scottish Government released its suicide prevention draft strategy on Thursday, which proposes workplaces do more to help stop the tragedies.
Richard Leonard threw his weight behind the Lost Souls of Dundee group, which is demanding answers over the deaths of their loved ones.
In a column for The Courier, the Labour chief said fighting the increasing “human tragedy” in the city had “fallen to brave women such as Mandy McLaren”, a bereaved mother.
And he said Carseview had “turned people away only for them to take their own lives”.
Ms McLaren’s Lost Souls of Dundee has led calls for a full inquiry into the way Carseview looks after mental health patients.
Her son Dale Thomson was admitted to the unit in January 2015 after trying to take his own life.
The 28-year-old was discharged and found dead four days later.
There were 19 suspected suicides in Dundee in 2011, compared with 23 in 2015 and 37 a year later, the National Records of Scotland figures show.
There were also rises over the five years in Perth (12 to 20) and Angus (14 to 17). Rates dropped in Fife, from 63 to 43.
Launching the Scottish Government’s mental health draft strategy Maureen Watt, the mental health minister, said while the suicide rate in Scotland has fallen over the past decade, the government “must go further”.
“As part of our proposals, we aim to produce a world-leading suicide prevention training programme for employers,” she added.
