Mission Statement
The Irish Association of Suicidology (IAS)
The IAS provides singular, authoritative, topical, safe,
locally contextualised information and advice to everyone
involved in the prevention and containment of the harms
arising from suicide and self harm.
The Irish Association of Suicidology was founded in 1996 by Dr John
Connolly, the late Dr Michael Kelleher, and Mr Dan Neville T.D. The IAS has
been working with community, voluntary and statutory bodies since its
inception to inform, educate and promote positive suicide prevention policies
throughout the island of Ireland.
The IAS prides itself on being a forum where all organisations can come
together and exchange knowledge regarding and aspect of suicidology which
is gained from differing perspectives and experiences. In our opinion no
group, voluntary or professional has a monopoly of wisdom or expertise about
suicide.
Suicide prevention in everybody responsibility and requires
coordinated action by all parts of our society. Through its conference and
publications, the IAS highlights various aspects of suicide and endeavours to
influence public policy and insure that positive action is taken to provide
adequate strategies to combat this tragic problem in our society.
Board Members
Mr Dan Neville TD
Dr John F Connolly
Dr Justin Brophy
Dr Margaret Kelleher
Ms Neasa Cummins
Dr Siobhan O’Neill
President
Secretary
Chair
Board
Board
Board
Among its aims and objectives are:To facilitate communication between clinicians, volunteers, survivors and
researchers in all matters relating to suicide and suicidal behaviour.
To promote awareness of the problems of suicide and suicidal behaviour in
the general public by holding conferences and workshops and by
communication of relevant material through the media.
To ensure that the public are better informed about suicide prevention.
To Support and encourage relevant research. To encourage and support the
information of groups to help those bereaved by suicide.
To make the IAS an all-island organisation.
Background
Suicide and suicide related harm and deaths are different in many unique and
fundamental ways from other health related problems.
Not only does suicide related harm impact health, there are several
larger social and communal impacts which are multipliers of the
individual costs.
Suicide operates in a fundamentally social and communal
context. The phenomenon of suicide contagion (clustering) is well
recognised. Exposure to suicide and discussions around suicide may
increase an individual’s risk of suicide. Nonetheless, discussing
suicidal thoughts is an important element of treatment. Sigma around
suicide is damaging for those who may have suicidal thoughts and
those bereaved through suicide.
Suicidology is the academic study of suicide rates and factors
associated with suicidal behaviour, as well as the study of variables
which reduce the risk of suicide. Research in this discipline has
revealed that the factors associated with suicidal behaviour are many
and complex. Many of those affected have mental health disorders,
however most people with mental disorders do not take their own lives.
Suicide is also associated with social factors, religious and cultural
beliefs, access to means and information about methods. Adverse
events associated with suicide include relationship difficulties, health
problems, bullying, employment problems, financial difficulties,
substance use and abuse, trouble with the law and social stigma.
There are therefore a large number of stakeholders who can positively
and negatively influence suicidal behaviour. Consequently, how
suicide is treated by these stakeholder individuals and agencies
directly contributes to the suicide rate and the burden of suicide.
There are dynamic and constantly changing social and cultural
trends regarding suicide. These can include changes in the availability
of methods, suicidal behaviour associated with a particular social trend
or a high profile death by suicide. task of containing and addressing
new threats and risks is a difficult one and it may require involvement
from a range of agencies. Many of those involved will not have
professional expertise in mental health or suicidal behaviour. As such
there is a need for an authoritative agency to provide up to date
guidance based on the most recent Suicidology research.
Responses to suicide clusters and trends must locally embedded and
widely supported by the community and be particularly sensitive to
local and cultural contexts. Given the importance of the social
environment in preventing suicidal it is necessary to both achieve
clarity and yet sophistication with regards to public and policy
utterances on this topic. The key role of the Irish Association of
Suicidology is to interface scientific and academic research on
suicide, international and national policy responses, clinical
practices, and community needs and responses.
The risks associated with oversimplification and misinformation around
suicide and suicidal behaviour are clear. Public responses and queries
regarding suicidal behaviour can perversely and counter-intuitively
increase risk. These risks cannot be overstated as suicidal behaviour is
demonstrably a contagious phenomenon. It is vital that we have an
agency to provide evidence-based guidance on balancing the risks of
misinformation and ignorance with the risks of informing. For that
reason a confident, authoritative and proactive organisation is required.
While Suicide prevention is everyone’s responsibility he Irish
Association of Suicidality can inform advice, empower, align, train, and
link different organisations, bridge knowledge gaps and most
fundamentally translate knowledge into safe and coherent policy advice
to reduce the burden of suicide.
The IAS
The IAS is and has a long record as an organisation as being so positioned
and placed to address this unique question in a way that provides singular,
authoritative, topical, safe information and advice to the multiplicity
stakeholders already outlined.
These stakeholders are named in Reach Out the national policy on
suicide prevention. These include school communities, third level
institutions, workplaces, general hospital, primary care and mental
health services as well as specific locales including prisons, Gardai
custody, and other specialised settings.
Reach Out in several places (including action domains 11 through to
21) states such responses are required to the professional and the
communities who operate in their various arenas. As of yet no single
organisation currently exists that has either the configuration or position
(other than the IAS) which can address these.
These have been and can be further addressed by the IAS in a
sequential or in a multi-pronged approach depending on resourcing
and logistical considerations.