The Irish Probable Suicide Deaths Study (IPSDS) is a collaborative project involving the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP), Irish coroners and the Health Research Board (HRB). It was established under Connecting for Life (CfL), Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide (2015–2024), to improve surveillance, evaluation and high-quality research relating to suicidal behaviour.
The HSE NOSP funds the project and manages the dataset. It uses death-investigation and administrative data, collected as part of the coronial process, to generate a detailed description of the characteristics of those who die by ‘probable suicide’ in Ireland. The definition of ‘probable suicide’ used in this report includes deaths with a coronial suicide verdict and deaths that are more likely than not, based on the weight of evidence, to have been a suicide.
Data are collected across all coroners’ districts in Ireland through the existing methodology and logistics of the HRB’s National Drugs-Related Death Index (NDRDI). This report from the IPSDS contains information on 2,349 deaths that occurred during the period 2015–2018 (referred to the IPSDS cohort from hereon). The aims of the IPSDS are to:
- Improve understanding of the demographic, social and clinical characteristics of those who die by probable suicide in Ireland, using a broad definition of a suicide death
- Identify risk factors for probable suicide and
- Inform the planning, implementation and evaluation of suicide prevention measures in Ireland.
An overview of the key findings from the IPSDS report is presented in the following pages. It is important to highlight here that all the secondary data analysis contained within the IPSDS has been based on anonymised information: no person can be, or has been, identified by the authors of this report.
In addition, it is important to note that this is the secondary analysis of existing data: the available data were not originally collected to address particular research questions. Therefore, information that might be relevant for a better understanding of the characteristics of those who died will not necessarily be recorded as part of the death investigation. Consequently, some of the prevalence data presented in the following pages may be underestimates and should be interpreted with caution.
To view a summary of the key findings click here
To read the full report please click here:
