By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Big data and suicide and self-harm prevention Professor Ann John, Swansea University. Prof John talked about the potential and challenges of using big data and routine records in suicide and self-harm research. In particular she highlighted the SAIL databank which provides data linkage to a number of datasets across… Continue reading Session 6: Data Hubs and Platforms
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Financial difficulty and suicide: data from frontline staff in commercial debt collection firms Dr Chris Fitch & Jamie Evans, Personal Finance Research Centre, University of Bristol. Dr Fitch’s ‘non-health’ angle focused on the presentation of suicidality to the frontline staff of commercial debt collection firms. They found that a… Continue reading Session 5: High Risk Groups
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Hospital and community presentations for self-harm: linking across datasets Prof Nav Kapur, University of Manchester. Prof Kapur focused on the importance of data linkage between primary and secondary datasets and mortality records. This presentation related to those who were hospitalised due to the self-harm, identified as an important group… Continue reading Session 4: Healthcare Context
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Suicide Registrations Data Dr Ben Windsor-Shellard, Office for National Statistics (ONS). Dr Windsor-Shellard pointed out that possible inconsistency in the ONS data can stem from the registration delay between date of death and date of registration of death (i.e. 152 days on average in England) and recent changes in… Continue reading Session 3: Registered Suicides
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Self-harm trends and risk factors using adult general population surveys (AMPS) Sally McManus, National Centre for Social Research. Sally McManus discussed the new NatCen report – “Suicide and Self-Harm in Britain – researching risk and resilience” which uses a range of cross-sectional data sources gathered from 1993 onwards. Sally’s… Continue reading Session 2: General Population and Cohort Surveys
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. Suicide Prevention Strategies: Data Needs and Data Gaps Prof Louis Appleby, University of Manchester. Prof Appleby summarised the key aims of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, in particular looking at “high risk” groups as well as other specific groups within the general population that may need targeted intervention. He… Continue reading Session 1: Context and Aims
By Rebecca Musgrove and Lana Bojanić. A number of netECR members attended the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and NIHR sponsored “Using data to inform suicide and self-harm prevention” at the Royal Statistical Society in London on Monday 25th February 2019. This was the first in a series of events to celebrate the 50th… Continue reading Conference Review: Using Data to Inform Suicide and Self-harm Prevention
By Justine Dickhoff. The 17th European Symposium on Suicide & Suicidal Behaviour was held in one of Europe’s oldest and most beautiful city’s: Ghent (Belgium). Over the years, this biennial symposium became a meeting point for researchers from all over the world to gather about scientific work, exchange knowledge, and discuss implication for suicide prevention.… Continue reading Conference Review: The 17th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour
By Isabela Troya. Suicide and suicidal behaviour are complex and multifactorial, influenced by a range of different determinants. Despite the complexity of suicidal behaviour, the approach taken within the field of suicidology in research has been mostly dominated by a single research design: quantitative methods. Hjelmeland and Knizek [1] have already documented the lack of… Continue reading The value of qualitative research methods in suicide prevention/suicidal behaviour research
By Lana Bojanić. Mental health of university students has been a hot topic in the last couple of years, both in research and in public domain, and for a good reason. The fact that the usual university age coincides with the age of onset of almost two-thirds of mental health problems, makes it vital to… Continue reading When and where to look for help? Student mental health challenges in Croatia
On Monday, 24 September at 10am (GMT) we had our monthly online journal club session and we discussed the new NICE guidelines on Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings (NG105) published earlier this month. The guidelines are available at: Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings. Here are some notes from thoughts shared in… Continue reading Preventing suicide in community and custodial settings
By Tiago Zortea. [Warning message: this article contains discussion of sensitive topics that some may find upsetting. If you need someone to talk to, Samaritans are available round-the-clock (and free to contact) on 116 123 (UK & ROI)]. The quote "let's talk about suicide" has spread online, contributing to the engagement of the general public… Continue reading How to help someone suffering from suicidal ideation?
By Katerina Kavalidou. The way that suicidal behaviours and suicide are presented in the media, attracts a lot of research interest, either due to the negative effect related to the increase of suicidal behaviours or the positive effect of promoting help-seeking. One of the main reasons that media professionals need to adhere to guidelines is… Continue reading How English-speaking media guidelines on self-harm and suicide reporting could help to prevent suicide abroad
I’m a healthy and stable guy. I lead a lifestyle I enjoy, have a job I’m passionate for and a friendship group I hold dear to me. I’m happy, positive about where I am in life and optimistic for the future. Even when times are bad, like when my father passed suddenly, I channelled the… Continue reading The Other Half of Suicide Ideation
By Sarah Stanford. Suicide and self-harm remain taboo topics in schools, despite the fact youth suicide has reached a ten year high. Recent statistics show around eight children and young people die by suicide each week in Australia. Around one in ten self-harm during their teenage years. This loss of life means that the topic… Continue reading Talking about suicide and self-harm in schools can save lives
By Sarah Stanford. Walk into any high school and you can be confident that there are young people who self-harm. Research suggests that around one in ten teens will self-harm at least once. That equates to 2-3 students per classroom. So we know that self-harm is fairly common. What is self-harm? The most common form… Continue reading Self harm by Australian high school students: latest research on who might do it and how to help
By Tiago Zortea. In 2002, an important epidemiological study on the global perspective on suicide was published by Bertolote and Fleischmann [1]. Among the interesting data presented, a graph on the differences of suicide rates according to religion affiliation was included (see graph below). From a quick look at the graph, it would seem that… Continue reading Is religion protective against suicidal behaviour for LGBT individuals?
By Tiago Zortea. The World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) 2017 campaign theme is “Take a minute, change a life”. You might wonder if this is really possible, since suicidal thoughts and behaviours are such complex phenomena to be understood. Indeed, research has shown that suicidal thoughts and behaviours are associated with feelings of entrapment [1]… Continue reading Can a life be changed with a minute?: Suicide prevention, complexity and change
By Kirsten Russell. Suicide continues to be a major public health concern worldwide, and is one of the leading causes of death in young people aged 15-24 (World Health Organisation, 2014). University students represent a particularly high risk group for the development of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. A survey conducted by NUS in 2013 highlighted… Continue reading The importance of starting a conversation about suicide: Advice for supporting postgraduate peers
By Donna Littlewood. A record-breaking 1400 people attended the 50th annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology in Phoenix, Arizona. The conference successfully attracts a diverse range of delegates, including researchers, clinicians, crisis centre volunteers, people bereaved by suicide, and people with lived experience of suicide. In coming together with the common goal… Continue reading Conference Review: American Association of Suicidology 50th Annual Conference
netecr.org 