New strategic plan for National Suicide Research Foundation in Cork

In 1994, one year after suicide was decriminalised in Ireland, seed funding from the Department of Health was provided to establish the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) in Cork.

Just over 30 years on, the NSRF, based at University College Cork (UCC), has published its new six-year strategic plan.

Dr Eve Griffin, NSRF CEO, told The Echo: “The roots of the service, the history of it being established one year after suicide was decriminalised, it was quite progressive for its time.

“It was established against a backdrop of stigma, and that social justice legacy has just gone from strength to strength.

“It’s fantastic that here in Cork we have this work which is impacting national and also international policy — we are working with more than 15 countries.”

Outlined in the plan is the importance of continuing collaboration with a range of sectors and partners including colleagues in policy, service development, clinical practice, and third-level education, as well as with organisations from the community and voluntary sectors.

This priority also reflects a commitment to continue to involve people with lived/ living experience of suicide and self-harm in their work going forward.

Dr Griffin said: “That’s a really important piece for us, there’s a saying ‘nothing for us without us’ so when undertaking research we need to involve people with direct experience either themselves, [or] someone who has had a bereavement of a loved one through suicide.

“Last year, we put a general call out to the public and through a network of community and voluntary groups to invite people with lived experience, and we put together a panel of nine people from lots of different backgrounds that work on a range of projects with us.”

Directing policy is a huge part of the work they do, she said, explaining that most of their research is funded through the HSE and focuses on service development or improvement.

“Our work has very tangible, direct benefits in terms of service provision, identifying things that need to be further developed, or priority groups.”

One area they are working on at the moment is support for people bereaved by the suicide of a loved one, “and looking at that support as a form of suicide prevention”, she said.

“Sixty thousand people are impacted by suicide in Ireland, so we are researching what type of formal or informal supports are needed, and really advocating for service provision in the community.”

They operate a self-harm registry to record presentations to hospital due to self-harm, which helps them to keep track of trends at a national level, she said.

“Trends in suicide and self-harm are driven by economic trends, so presentations increased during the 2008 economic recession, and when covid came along we were very concerned about what sort of an impact it would have.

“We communicated about the importance of getting income protection measures in place, because income poverty and financial stressors are very strong presenters in cases of suicide.

“We didn’t see the increase in self-harm and suicide that we thought we might,” she explained, adding that these economic measures they advocated for, as well as how quickly mental health services were able to move online and provide continuity of care, were likely important contributors to this.

“However, the cost of living crisis, homelessness crisis, and global insecurity means there’s really a need to monitor what’s happening at the moment,” she concluded.