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
On Monday, 4th February at 12pm (GMT) we had our first monthly online journal club session of 2019 and we discussed the paper “Machine learning in suicide science: Applications and ethics” by Ryn Linthicum and colleagues. Here are some notes from thoughts shared in our discussion, kindly summarised by Ian Hussey. Overview of paper Machine… Continue reading Machine learning in suicide science: Applications and ethics
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
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 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
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
By Olivia Kirtley. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) released the first ever World Suicide Report, showing that around 800,000 people die by suicide each year. In fact, around the world, one person will die by suicide every 40 seconds, which means in the time it’s taken me… Continue reading Suicide Prevention: We Need Everyone
By Olivia Kirtley. As a child, I grew up watching the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on TV and feeling a tremendous sense of excitement as these famous scientists submerged PhD students in ice water baths, cuddled lemurs and dissected brains, all in the name of public engagement with science. During my PhD, I’ve been on… Continue reading We need to talk about *******: Public engagement for “taboo” topics
By Olivia Kirtley. It is estimated that more than 800,000 individuals die globally each year as a result of suicide and for those aged 15-29 years old, suicide is the second leading worldwide cause of death after road traffic accidents 1. But we don’t whisper about car accidents, or exchange sideways glances when someone mentions… Continue reading The S Word: Talking About Suicide
By Olivia Kirtley. Today is World Suicide Prevention Day and around the world people are raising awareness of suicide prevention. The theme for this year is ‘reaching out, saving lives’. But what is the reach of suicide, and what does reaching out do? The Reach Every year, more than 800,000 people die by suicide around… Continue reading The Reach and Reaching Out of Suicide
By Tiago Zortea. Ten years ago, in the second year of my undergraduate course in Psychology, I came across a short book chapter that caused me to rethink many of the ways in which I understood mental health: The actress, the priest, and the psychoanalyst: The knife sharpeners, written by the Brazilian Professor of Social… Continue reading On sharpening knives, stigma and mental health
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