Project Overview
As part of its role in Connecting for Life, Ireland’s National Suicide Reduction Strategy, The Irish Prison Service has committed to reviewing, analysing and learning from each episode of self-harm within the prison estate.
The SADA project provides robust information relating to the incidence and profile of self-harm within prison settings, identifies individual- and context-specific risk factors relating to self-harm, as well as examining patterns of repeat self-harm. Such information can be used as an evidence base to inform the identification and management of prisoners who engage in or who are at-risk for self-harm, and to develop effective prevention initiatives.
Findings from this project are disseminated back to the Irish Prison Service National Suicide and Harm Prevention Steering Group (NSHPG) on a yearly basis. The National Suicide Research Foundation coordinates the data management, data analysis and reporting of findings from the SADA Project.
Project Aims
- To collate, enter and analyse data from the Irish Prison Service’s Self-Harm/Suicide Surveillance & Monitoring System.
- To report on yearly trends and prepare papers for peer review.
Recent publications
Self-harm in Irish Prisons 2019 – Third report from the Self-Harm Assessment and Data Analysis (SADA) Project. McTernan N, Griffin E, Cully G, Kelly E, Hume S, O’Reilly D, Corcoran P (2021). Irish Prison Service
Self-harm in Irish Prisons 2018 – Second report from the Self-Harm Assessment and Data Analysis (SADA) Project. McTernan N, Griffin E, Cully G, Kelly E, Hume S, O’Reilly D, Corcoran P (2020). Irish Prison Service
McTernan N, Griffin E, Cully G, Kelly E, Hume S, Corcoran P (2023) The incidence and profile of self-harm among prisoners: Findings from the Self-Harm Assessment and Data Analysis Project 2017-2019. International Journal of Prisoner Health
