Dr Mallorie Leduc

Mallorie joined the National Suicide Research Foundation as a Senior Researcher on the Horizon 2020 EU-funded, Mental Health Promotion and Intervention in Occupational Settings, MENTUPP, project.

Within the team based in Ireland, Mallorie is involved in the coordination of the cluster randomised controlled trial involving organisations from the construction, healthcare and ICT sectors across 8 European countries and Australia.

Mallorie completed an Interdisciplinary PhD in Rural and Northern Health focused on occupational health and safety education intervention programs that have been conducted within rural and northern industries and communities.

Dr Madhav Bhargav

Dr Madhav Bhargav is a postdoctoral researcher at National Suicide Research Foundation and School of Public Health at University College Cork.

He completed his master’s and PhD from the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin. His PhD focuses on childhood trauma and psychopathology in college students.

His research within NSRF focuses broadly on public health and policy related to suicide and self-harm across Europe.

Madhav has presented at various international conferences on youth mental health, with particular focus on childhood trauma and emotional dynamics in youth. He has also published peer reviewed papers, several articles, and presented on topics relating to mental health of youths in Universities.

Úna O’Callaghan

Úna joined the NSRF in September 2023 as Financial Controller.  Úna has worked in finance for 18 years and has held senior positions within the Healthcare Sector.

Úna qualified as an accountant with CPA Ireland in 2009 and continues to undertake continuous professional training and development each year.

Together with Eileen Hegarty, Úna overseas the finance function of the NSRF and is responsible for all financial reporting activities and ensuring financial compliance as well as budgeting, forecasting and long-term financial planning.

Dr Michelle O’Driscoll

Michelle is a post-doctoral researcher working on the Health Service Executive National Office for Suicide Prevention (HSE-NOSP) funded projects, having joined the NSRF in 2023. In addition, Michelle is also a Clinical Pharmacy Lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, UCC.

Michelle’s PhD examined the effects of a mindfulness-based intervention on pharmacy student stress and distress, a national mixed-methods controlled trial. Her current research interests lie in the areas of suicide prevention and wellbeing education, postvention interventions, and reducing access to means.

Michelle qualified as a pharmacist after completing her BPharm at UCC in 2011, and MPharm in RCSI in 2012. Michelle also holds a Certificate in Teaching and Learning from UCC, and a Professional Diploma in the Teaching of Mindfulness-Based Interventions.

What we learned about HUGG peer-support groups for people bereaved by suicide

HUGG, led by Fiona Tuomey (CEO), is an organisation supporting adults bereaved by suicide across Ireland through peer support groups. These are groups of up to 12 people bereaved by suicide who meet every fortnight to discuss their bereavement experiences and support each other.

Our research team received funding through the Irish Research Council to examine the impact of participating in these groups and the experiences of group members, using a combination of follow-up surveys (for up to 6 months) and interviews. We learned that those attending peer support groups experienced improved wellbeing and reduced symptoms of traumatic grief. We also measured depression symptoms, physical grief reactions, and stigma experienced. These measures did not change during participation in the groups.

When we interviewed people attending the HUGG groups, they told us about why the groups helped them. The groups provided the opportunity to share their experiences with other people bereaved by suicide; to feel less alone in their experiences; to glean hope from seeing people at different stages in their bereavement journey; and to think about things differently through hearing other peoples’ perspectives.

In this project, we heard from a small sample of people, and did not capture views of people who may have had negative experiences of peer support. However, our research highlights the benefits of peer support groups for those who seek them out. The study also tells us about the experiences that might be more difficult to change for people bereaved by suicide. We saw little change in peoples’ experiences of stigma. Improving this likely requires activities that encourage all of us, in the wider public, to continue to challenge stigma towards suicide and suicide bereavement.

“Ni neart go cur le chéile” or in other words, there is no strength without unity.

Project lead: Dr Eve Griffin

Research team: Dr Selena O’Connell, Dr Eimear Ruane-McAteer, Dr Isabela Troya, Niall Seymour, Dr Paul Corcoran, Prof Ella Arensman

Funding: Irish Research Council’s New Foundations 2020 scheme.

To find out more about the study and findings visit our project webpage.  Find out more about HUGG here

 

Grace Phillips

Research Officer

Grace is a research officer at the National Suicide Research Foundation. Grace is involved in the organisation of C-SSHRI Network research events such as Webinars, Workshops and Virtual Seminars. Grace is also responsible for research funded by the Higher Education Authority’s. Her work will contribute to the overall outcomes of ‘Connecting for Life’ to reduce suicide and self-harm rates in the whole population and amongst specified priority groups.

Before joining the NSRF, Grace worked in the School of Public Health, and temporally in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC. Grace has completed an honours undergraduate degree in Public Health (UCC) and a Master of Public Health, Epidemiology pathway, at the School of Public Health in UCC.

NSRF News Round Up; June to October

Author: Fenella Ryan and Niall McTernan

Welcome to our latest news round-up. Our team have been incredibly busy over the past few months. We include some highlights below.

Journal articles

NSRF researchers have been involved in 14 peer-reviewed journal articles published since June:

1.Preventing Suicide in Health Systems: How Can Implementation Science Help? Archives of Suicide Research. Larkin C, Arensman E, Boudreaux.

2. Real-Time Suicide Surveillance: Comparison of International Surveillance Systems and Recommended Best Practice. Archives of Suicide Research. Benson R, Rigby J, Brunsdon C, Corcoran P, Dodd P, Ryan M, Cassidy E, Lascelles K, De Leo , Crompton D, Kõlves K, Leske S, Dwyer J, Pirkis J, Shave R, Fortune S, Arensman E. 

3. Mental health following an initial period of COVID-19 restrictions: findings from a cross-sectional survey in the Republic of Ireland. HRB Open Res 4:130. Troya MI, Joyce M, Khashan A, Buckley C, Chakraborti K, Hoevel P, Humphries R, Kearney PM, Kiely E, Murphy M, Perry I, Arensman E. 

4. The development and validation of a dashboard prototype for real-time suicide mortality data. Front. Digit. Health 4:909294. Benson R, Brunsdon C, Rigby J, Corcoran P, Ryan M, Cassidy E, Dodd P, Hennebry D, Arensman E.

5. Time of self-harm presentations to hospital emergency departments: a scoping review. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. McEvoy D, Clarke M, Joyce M.

6. Dialectical Behavior Therapy for Individuals With Borderline Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review of Outcomes After One Year of Follow-Up. Journal of Personality Disorders, 36:4. Gillespie C, Murphy M, Joyce M.

7. Real-time suicide surveillance supporting policy and practice. Global Mental Health, 1-5. Benson R, Brunsdon C, Rigby J, Corcoran P, Ryan M, Cassidy E, Dodd P, Hennebry D, Arensman, E.

8. Suicide numbers during the first 9-15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with pre-existing trends: An interrupted time series analysis in 33 countries. eClinicalMedicine, 51. Pirkis J, Gunnell D, Shin S, Del Pozo-Banos M, Arya V, Aguilar PA et al.

9. Substance use and self-harm presentations during COVID19: evidence from a National Clinical Programme for Self-Harm. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1-6. Maguire E, Kavalidou K, Bannan N, Doherty AM, Jeffers A.

10. Police-reported suicides during the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador: A time-series analysis of trends and risk factors until June 2021. The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, 14:100324, Gerstner RM, Narvaez F, Leske S, Troya IM, Analuisa-Aguilar P, Spittal MJ, Gunnell D (2022).

11. The role of work in suicidal behavior – uncovering priorities for research and prevention. Scand J Work Environ Health. Greiner BA, Arensman E (2022).

12. Supporting employees with mental illness and reducing mental illness-related stigma in the workplace: an expert survey. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 1-15. Hogg B, Moreno-Alcazar A, Toth MD, Serbanescu I, Aust B, Leduc C, Paterson C, Ni Dhalaigh D, Arensman E et al (2022).

13. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on presentations to health services following self-harm: systematic review. Br J Psychiatry. Steeg S, John A, Gunnell DJ, Kapur N, Dekel D, Schmidt L, Knipe D, Arensman E, Hawton K, Higgins JPT, Eyles E, Macleod-Hall C, McGuiness LA, Webb RT (2022).

14. Intimate Partner Violence: breaking the silence. The Lancet, vol. 9(7),pp.530-531. Griffin, E and Arensman E

Reports

Ireland’s First National Suicide Bereavement Survey ‘AfterWords – A survey of people bereaved by suicide in Ireland’, a collaboration between the NSRF and HUGG, was launched by Minister Mary Butler on Tuesday 11th October 2022 at an event hosted by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy, at the Mansion House, Dublin.

The launch was followed by a key stakeholder workshop, which generated important action points and priority recommendations to inform service development and policy, along with further research in this area.

Report: https://www.nsrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Suicide-Bereavement-Survey-report_digital.pdf

Our 2021 Annual Report was published in September and is a great way to learn more about the work of the NSRF and our activities in 2021.

NSRF-annual-report-2021-digital.pdf

The 2020 Annual Report of the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland was published on November 9th, in addition to a data briefing covering the period January-June 2021, utilising data from a sample of 22 hospitals.

2020 report – https://www.nsrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/NSRF-National-Self-Harm-Registry-Ireland-annual-report-2020-Final-for-website.pdf

2021 Data Briefing – https://www.nsrf.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Hospital-presenting-self-harm-during-January-June-2021-data-briefing-November-2022.pdf

Presentations

Disseminating and sharing our research findings is important to us. Team members attended various national and international Conferences and Seminars, delivering informative presentations and connecting with other suicide and self-harm researchers. This included the large European ESSSB19 Conference in Copenhagen in August. All NSRF presentations at ESSSB19 listed below.

Events

Members of the NSRF attended a meeting of the Pan-European Mental Health Coalition in Copenhagen on August 23rd. NSRF areas of expertise in relation to key priority areas within the European Framework for action on Mental Health 2021-2025 were discussed.

On September 15th, we hosted a World Suicide Prevention Day Webinar at which we launched our new HRB Ireland Research Training Programme – MHAINTAIN.

An EAAD-Best training demonstration & the iFightDepression website were also highlighted.

On October 14th, we held a Suicide, Self-Harm and Mental Health virtual Seminar to mark World Mental Health Day.

Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to Ruth Benson, who successfully passed her PhD Viva in October. Ruth’s thesis addressed: Real-time surveillance for evidence-based responses to suicide contagion and clustering, which she conducted in the School of Public Health and the National Suicide Research Foundation.

Congratulations to Dr Caroline Daly for winning the best poster presentation award at the 19th European Symposium on Suicide and Suicidal Behaviour in Copenhagen for her work on ‘Preventing intentional paracetamol overdose in countries with increasing rates and existing sales legislation’

Looking ahead

As we approach the end of the year, our team will be finalising projects and reports and beginning to reflect on 2022 as a whole. For all our latest news and updates, keep an eye on our Twitter, our Publications and Outputs and our Upcoming Events page.

World Suicide Prevention Day 2022

Authors: Margaret Kenneally and Dr Mallorie Leduc

‘Creating Hope Through Action’

The National Suicide Research Foundation and the School of Public Health, UCC hosted two interrelated Webinars yesterday to honour World Suicide Prevention Day 2022. The Webinars offered the opportunity to present the remarkable work that occurs behind the scenes on a daily basis. The organisation of these Webinars has been a rich experience for the team, highlighting the great work and progress made on both the MHAINTAIN and EAAD-Best projects.

The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) created the theme for World Suicide Prevention Day 2022, ‘Creating Hope Through Action’ – an inspiring theme that goes hand-in-hand with both projects discussed during our Webinars.

MHAINTAIN

The first section of the Webinar introduced the new HRB-funded project MHAINTAIN.

MHAINTAIN is a research training network addressing the need for doctoral training and career paths to improve early identification and intervention of self-harm and suicide risk.

The MHAINTAIN research training programme includes four Doctoral Projects, with five PhD Scholars. There were presentations from several members of the MHAINTAIN consortium, which consists of an interdisciplinary team of researchers and health professionals.  The consortium aims to improve capacity building in the assessment of the risk of suicide and self-harm and evidence-based interventions across patient-focused research, health services research, and population health research.

Principal Investigator, Professor Ella Arensman and Co-Lead, Dr. Paul Corcoran introduced the Webinar, welcoming attendees.

“Mhaintain that resilience”

– Prof John Cryan

Professor John Cryan, (Vice President for Research and Innovation, UCC) began the summit, applauding Professor Arensman for her determination in securing the HRB Collaborative Doctoral Award.

An opening address from Professor Vincent Russell (National Clinical Lead, National Clinical Programme for Self-Harm and Suicide Related Ideation) shortly followed. There were presentations from Professor John Browne, Professor Eugene Cassidy, Dr. Olivia O’Leary, Dr. Eve Griffin and Professor Kairi Kolves. 

EAAD-Best

The second portion of the Webinar focused on the EAAD-Best and the Cork Kerry Alliance Against Depression demonstration workshop, entitled, ‘EAAD-Best: Perspectives on Early Identification of Suicide Risk and Prevention’. This topic greatly compliments the IASP’s theme ‘Creating Hope through Action’.

EAAD-Best is a European Union funded project that aims to improve care for patients with depression and to prevent suicidal behaviour in Europe by transferring the community-based 4 level intervention concept and promoting the uptake of the iFightDepression tool.

The event provided a brief background on the overall EAAD-Best project and highlighted ongoing work undertaken in partnership with the Cork Kerry Alliance Against Depression. An interactive demonstration workshop showcased the aspects of the training opportunities that are available for General Practitioners and Mental Health Professionals and community stakeholder groups such as pharmacists, clergy, counsellors and social workers, geriatric care givers, and journalists.

A live demonstration of the iFightDepression website and iFightDepression Tool was provided to highlight their respective features and support systems. There was also an opportunity to express interest and register for upcoming training sessions on depression and suicidality.  

 To learn more…

Recordings of these two webinars will be available soon. For more information or to learn more about EAAD-Best, and upcoming training opportunities, please contact the team at eaadbest@ucc.ie. The MHAINTAIN website is currently under construction and will be launched in Autumn 2022. For more information please contact mhaintain@ucc.ie.  

Screengrab of Webinar attendees 15/09/2022

SHOAR: Improving care pathways and understanding of self-harm in older adults

Author: Dr Isabela Troya

SHOAR is a two-year study led by Dr Isabela Troya, funded by a Government of Ireland Fellowship (2022-2024).  SHOAR aims to examine individual and psychosocial determinants of self-harm in older adults to improve risk assessment and management of self-harm in later life.

About the Project- What is SHOAR?

Self-harm, the act of harming oneself, is an increasing societal concern worldwide. Annually in Ireland, more than 400 people die by suicide and a further 12,500 present to hospital following self-harm, of which approximately 15% are older adults (aged >60).

Older adults who self-harm have a high risk of suicide. They have higher levels of suicidal intent compared to any other age group, placing them at higher suicide risk. Older adults who self-harm are 20 times more likely to die from unnatural causes, and 67 times more likely to die by suicide when compared to their peers who have not self-harmed.

Worldwide, the age group that is most likely to die by suicide is represented by older adults, in particular men. In Ireland, there is limited research examining self-harm and suicide in older adults. Specifically, the profile of older adults who self-harm is not well known, or what factors affect older people who self-harm.

To gain a better understanding of self-harm in older adults, and to inform policy, patients, clinicians, and the Irish healthcare system, this study will examine the factors that lead to older adults hurting themselves.

This is a multi-method study, using two large national databases (National Self-Harm Registry Ireland from the National Suicide Research Foundation and The Irish Longitudinal Study of Ageing from Trinity College Dublin) combined with primary research (interviewing health practitioners who support older adults).

Personnel Involved

Dr Isabela Troya is a Government of Ireland Fellow at the School of Public Health, University College Cork and the National Suicide Research Foundation. She leads the two-year study SHOAR, funded by the Irish Research Council.

Previously, Isabela was a Post-Doctoral Researcher on the Health Research Board funded programme led by Prof Ella Arensman ‘Individual and Area Level Determinants of Self-Harm and Suicide in Ireland: Enhancing Prediction, Risk Assessment and Management of Self-Harm by Health Services’. In her 2 years working in the HRB funded project, Isabela managed and co-led the development and implementation of an advanced skills training for health professionals supporting people who self-harm: Self-harm Assessment and Management Programme for General Hospitals (SAMAGH) Training Programme.

Dr Troya trained and qualified as a Clinical Psychologist (2015) at University San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador, and completed an MSc in Global Mental Health (2016) at King’s College London and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Her PhD thesis, titled ‘Understanding self-harm behaviour in older adults was awarded PhD prize of the year (2020) by the UK’s Society for Academic Primary Care.

Steering Group

Isabela is supported by an advisory group made up of experts including clinicians, academics, and policy makers. These include:

Prof Ella Arensman, Professor in Public Mental Health UCC & Chief Scientist, NSRF
Dr Robert Briggs, Consultant Geriatrician St James Hospital, TCD
Prof Eugene Cassidy, Consultant Psychiatrist CUH & Clinical Professor, UCC
Dr Paul Corcoran, Head of Research, NSRF
Dr Eve Griffin, HRB EIA Research Fellow, UCC
Sally-Ann Lovejoy, Nurse Clinical Lead Self-Harm Programme, HSE

Dr James O’Mahony, Lecturer, UCC
Dr Faraz Mughal, Academic GP and NIHR Doctoral Fellow, Keele University
Prof Vincent Russell, National Clinical Lead Self-Harm Programme, HSE
Dr Mark Ward, Senior Research Fellow, TILDA, TCD

Recent Publications

Troya, M. I., Spittal, M. J., Pendrous, R., Crowley, G., Gorton, H. C., Russell, K., … & Knipe, D. (2022). Suicide rates amongst individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds: A systematic review and meta-analysis. EClinicalMedicine, 47, 101399.

Troya, M.I., Cully, G., Leahy, D., Cassidy, E., Sadath, A., Nicholson, S., . . . Arensman, E. (2021). Investigating the relationship between childhood sexual abuse, self-harm repetition and suicidal intent: Mixed-methods study. BJPsych Open, 7(4), E125. doi:10.1192/bjo.2021.962

Troya, M. I., Gerstner, R. M., Narvaez, F., & Arensman, E. (2021). Sociodemographic Analysis of Suicide Rates Among Older Adults Living in Ecuador: 1997–2019. Frontiers in public health, 9.

Cheung, G., Chai, Y., Troya, M. I., & Luo, H. (2020). Predictive factors of nonfatal self-harm among community-dwelling older adults assessed for support services. International Psychogeriatrics, 1-14.

Troya, M.I., Babatunde, O., Polidano, K., Bartlam, B., McCloskey, E., Dikomitis, L., Chew-Graham, C.A. (2019) Self-harm in older adults: a systematic review. British Journal of Psychiatry, 214(4), 186-200. doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.11

Troya, M. I., Chew-Graham, C. A., Babatunde, O., Bartlam, B., Mughal, F., & Dikomitis, L. (2019). Role of primary care in supporting older adults who self-harm: a qualitative study in England. British journal of general practice, 69(688), e740-e751.  

Troya, M. I., Dikomitis, L., Babatunde, O., Bartlam, B., & Chew-Graham, C. A. (2019). Understanding self-harm in older adults: a qualitative study. EClinicalMedicine, 12, 52-61.

Contact

If you would like to contact us about this research, you can contact Dr Isabela Troya at isabela.troya@ucc.ie

The NSRHI and Data Registration Officers

Authors: Fenella Ryan, Dr Mary Joyce and Dr Paul Corcoran

What is the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland?

The National Self-Harm Registry Ireland (NSHRI) is our principal project here at the NSRF. The Registry records hospital-presenting self-harm at Emergency Departments (ED) across Ireland. It was established by us in 2000 at the request of the Department of Health and Children. The Registry is funded by the Health Service Executive’s National Office for Suicide Prevention.

Role of Data Registration Officers

The NSRF employs 16 Data Registration Officers (DROs) who visit their allocated hospitals across Ireland to collect data on self-harm presentations. We collect data in 32 hospitals since obtaining full national coverage of all general and paediatric hospital EDs in 2006.

DROs review hospital data and obtain the necessary information for the minimal dataset we record. Data are pseudonymised by DROs before compiling it for return to our office-based team of researchers.

How Registry data are used

The data returned by DROs are analysed by the office-based research team who seek to identify the extent and nature of hospital-presenting self-harm, with a view to monitoring trends over time and by area. Having comprehensive data on self-harm hospital presentations also allows us to contribute to national policy regarding suicidal behaviour and helps to advance prevention strategies.

Research findings

We publish findings from the NSHRI in regular Briefings and Reports. Registry data is often used as the data source for a wide-range of peer-reviewed journal articles, a recent example being: ‘The impact of guidance on the supply of codeine-containing products on their use in intentional drug overdose’ by NSRF team members Dr Eve Griffin, Dr Paul Corcoran and Dr Caroline Daly alongside collaborators Dr Emma Birchall and Prof Ivan Perry.

Data collection challenges

Our DROs have faced unprecedented challenges in the past 2+ years including the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented DROs from entering hospitals to collect data, and the HSE Cyberattack in May 2021 which resulted in the loss of some hospital data. Despite these challenges, the Registry team has recently finalised their dataset for 2020, the results of which will be published in an Annual Report in the coming weeks.

Training and support

Earlier this month, we brought our DROs together in-person for the first time in two years. It was wonderful to meet with DROs in-person after multiple online meetings during the pandemic. As well as training updates and support, it also allowed for some well-needed social interaction for both DROs and office-based team members!

International surveillance systems

The success of the Registry in Ireland has led to the use of our Standard Operating Procedure as a template in other countries worldwide. One example of this is the Northern Ireland Registry of Self-Harm, which was established in 2012 with input and support by the NSRF. Other examples include work being undertaken by Prof Ella Arensman and NSRF colleagues with the World Health Organisation to implement similar self-harm surveillance systems in countries including Poland, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.

Upcoming publications

Keep an eye on our Twitter and Publications pages for new research published based on Registry data.