Institution: University of Edinburgh (School of Health in Social Science), Scotland. Supervisory team: Dr Helen Griffiths & Dr Catherine Varnell. Position: Trainee Clinical Psychologist. Current research: I am interested in understanding the systemic impact of adolescent self-harm. My doctoral research explores sibling experiences of growing up with a brother or sister who self-harmed. Research interests:… Continue reading Nienke van Alphen
Institution: University of Nottingham (Self-Harm Research Group, School of Psychology, School of Mental Health), England. Supervisory team: Professor Ellen Townsend and Professor Jon Arcelus. Position: PhD student. Current research: I am interested in factors leading to self-harm and suicide and how they may differ in different populations. Specifically in vulnerable populations. My PhD research explores… Continue reading Katherine Bird
Institution: City, University of London, School of Health Sciences, Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research, England. Supervisory team: Professor Susan Ayers, Professor Rose McCabe, Dr Rose Coates. Position: PhD student. Current research: Identifying women at risk of suicide in pregnancy and after birth, with specific attention to assessment methods. The primary aim of my… Continue reading Elizabeth (Liz) Dudeney
Institution: University College London, England. Supervisory team: Dr Zsófia Demjén and Dr Alexandra Pitman. Position: PhD student. Current research: I am currently working on a thesis investigating linguistic features of suicidal ideation in unthematic content on reddit. I am interested in finding whether there are unique linguistic features of suicidal ideation, regardless of the topic… Continue reading Andrea Vaughan
Institution: James J Peters VAMC; Teachers College at Columbia University, USA. Supervisory team: Dr. Marianne Goodman, MD; Dr. Christine Cha, PhD. Position: Lab Manager; Research Assistant. Current research: Throughout my time at the VA and TC, I became passionate about the etiology, assessment, and treatment of suicide risk. My work fostered aspirations of using real-time… Continue reading Sarah Sullivan
Institution: Division of Psychology and Mental Health, University of Manchester, England. Supervisory team: Dr Sarah Peters, Dr Patricia Gooding. Position: PhD student. Current research: My project aims to investigate how suicide research can be conducted safely and in a way that is acceptable and meaningful to those who participate. Using mixed methods I will explore… Continue reading Kerry Hozhabrafkan
Institution: Teachers College, Columbia University (Lab for Clinical and Developmental Studies, Clinical Psychology Program), USA. Supervisory team: Dr. Christine Cha. Position: PhD student. Current research: I am broadly interested in novel methodological approaches to short-term suicide risk assessment and intervention. My current research explores behavioral markers of suicide risk in young adults and adolescents. Research… Continue reading Ilana Gratch
Institution: University of Newcastle / Everymind, Australia. Supervisory team: Dr Sally Fitzpatrick (Everymind), Professor Myfanwy Maple (Uni of New England), Dr Sarah Wayland (Uni of New England), Professor Frances Kay-Lambkin (Uni of Newcastle). Position: PhD student. Current research: My PhD research is exploring the needs of caregivers of a person who has attempted suicide. What… Continue reading Andrew McMahon
Institution: Orygen; Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne; Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. Supervisory team: A/Prof Jo Robinson, A/Prof Simon Rice, A/Prof Maja Nedeljkovic. Position: PhD (Clinical Psychology) student and Research Assistant. Current research: I am interested in the ways the internet and digital technologies can be used to support youth at risk… Continue reading Eleanor Bailey
By Rebecca Musgrove I’ve always loved numbers. I have vivid memories of the excitement of solving complicated A-level maths problems. I enjoyed the lack of ambiguity; either the answer was right or it was wrong. It was knowable. Twenty years later, via a career implementing community health projects, where there is rarely one straightforward solution,… Continue reading Getting reflexive: Reflections from a data loving researcher
Institution: Florida State University, Department of Psychology, USA. Supervisory team: Dr. Jessica D. Ribeiro. Position: PhD student. Current research: I am interested in elucidating the causal mechanisms underlying suicidal behaviors. My research leverages experimental techniques to test causal hypotheses about suicide. Research interests: Causal processes underlying suicidal behaviors How biological deprivation states (e.g., sleep deprivation,… Continue reading Lauren Harris
Institution: University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Department of Public Health Sciences), USA. Supervisory team: Dr. Robert J. Cramer. Position: PhD student. Current research: I explore population-specific patterns of risk and protection among vulnerable groups within a social-ecological framework, considering interpersonal and structural factors related to suicide outcomes. Much of my research within the field… Continue reading Andrea Kaniuka
By Rosie Pendrous. In psychological research, we rely on being able to measure a construct (such as depression) or a behaviour (such as frequency of past self-harm) in a valid and reliable way [1]. In doing so, we need to balance developing measures that accurately tap into the construct or behaviour we intend to measure… Continue reading Using single-item measures in suicide and self-harm research
By Martina McGrath. Here in Australia social change in relation to suicide prevention is occurring; and it is not without its struggles. The suicide prevention peer workforce (SP Peer Workforce) is emerging as is noted in Hawgood et al [1]. Alongside its emergence is the development and growth of non-clinical alternatives to care for people… Continue reading For the love of language, can we talk about that?
By Laura Hemming. “You’re not going to see him on your own, are you?” It was my first day collecting data in prison and I was trying to navigate the complicated process of identifying a potential participant to meet and discuss my research with. “No, no you’d be better off seeing John Smith [1]. He… Continue reading Tips for researching suicide in prison
By Katherine Brown. Support: “to give or be ready to give help to somebody if they need it”. Few would argue against the idea that those who self-harm should be given support to overcome distress and cope in more adaptive ways. But with studies suggesting that approximately half of those who self-harm do not receive… Continue reading What support is really there for those who self-harm?
By Katerina Kavalidou and Alessio Albanese. The United Nations’s refugee agency (UNHCR) has recently published an annual Global Trends Report showing that currently, nearly 79.5 million people are forcibly displaced worldwide. Whilst the majority are internally displaced (around 46 million), 26 million are refugees and 4.2 million are asylum seekers [1]. Though often discussed together,… Continue reading Self-harm and suicide among asylum seekers and refugees: A call to researchers
By Justine Dickhoff. The role of the brain in suicide Our brain is one of the most fascinating organs. Even though it only makes up 3% of our body weight it keeps our body running all day. It helps us to accomplish our work, go from place to place and let us understand when a… Continue reading How studying the brain can help us to reduce suicide
By Julie Janssens. “I don’t want you to include my parents in therapy!” “I hate them!” “They don’t love me…” “They will not understand what I am going through.” “They have enough on their plate already. I don’t want to burden them with my problems.” “It is like there is a huge skyscraper between us.”… Continue reading The importance of attachment in treating and investigating self-harm
By John F. Gunn III. I have always had an interest in theoretical perspectives of suicide – so much so that I convinced David Lester to edit a book on the topic with me [1]. I even attempted my own supposition on a theoretical framework some years ago [2]. However, as I developed as a… Continue reading Suicide in Context: How Bioecological Theory Could Advance Theories of Suicide
