Counting and accounting for mental health related deaths in England and Wales

This article examines how mental health related deaths (MHRDs) in England and Wales are counted and accounted for. Data collated by the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH) constructs such deaths as being predominantly the result of suicide. This article examines 221 Reports to Prevent Future Deaths (PFDs) issued by […]

An analysis of suicides among first responders: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 2015–2017

Introduction: First responders, including law enforcement officers (LEOs), firefighters, emergency medical services (EMS) clinicians, and public safety telecommunicators, face unique occupational stressors and may be at elevated risk for suicide. This study characterized suicides among first responders and identifies potential opportunities for additional data collection. Methods: Using suicides identified from the three most recent years of National […]

Real-time suicide surveillance: Comparison of international surveillance systems and recommended best practice

Objective: Some countries have implemented systems to monitor suicides in real-time. These systems differ because of the various ways in which suicides are identified and recorded. The main objective of this study was to conduct an international comparison of major real-time suicide mortality surveillance systems to identify joint strengths, challenges, and differences, and thereby inform best-practice […]

U.S. gun violence in 2021: An accounting of a public health crisis

Gun violence is an ongoing public health crisis in the United States that impacts the health and wellbeing of all of us. In 2020, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. experienced an unprecedented spike in gun homicides. Many believed that this spike would be short-lived; levels of gun violence would subside […]

Evaluation of a system for real-time surveillance of suicide in England

Background: Access to timely data on suicide is crucial to support suicide prevention. A real-time suicide surveillance (RTSS) system enables public health teams and allied agencies to review information following suicides promptly and take action quickly. Aims: The aim of this paper was to report on an evaluation of an RTSS system in South Yorkshire, England. Method: The […]

Public surveillance of social media for suicide using advanced deep learning models in Japan: Time series study from 2012 to 2022

Background: Social media platforms have been increasingly used to express suicidal thoughts, feelings, and acts, raising public concerns over time. A large body of literature has explored the suicide risks identified by people’s expressions on social media. However, there is not enough evidence to conclude that social media provides public surveillance for suicide without aligning […]

Sociodemographic characteristics of women who died by suicide in India from 2014 to 2020: Findings from surveillance data

Background Women in India have twice the suicide death rate (SDR) compared with the global average for women. The aim of this study is to present a systematic understanding of sociodemographic risk factors, reasons for suicide deaths, and methods of suicide among women in India at the state level over time. Methods Administrative data on […]

Health, United States, 2020–2021: Annual perspective

The Health, United States program provides a wide array of trends in health statistics to policymakers, public health professionals, and the public. As part of the program’s legislative mandate, Health, United States is  charged with presenting a comprehensive set of health topics, and examining trends in health status and determinants, healthcare utilization, healthcare resources, and […]

From suicide surveillance to restricting access to means: A time series study of suicide prevention at the Story Bridge

Surveillance is a crucial part of suicide prevention, for identifying suicide trends, risk groups, suicide clusters (World Health Organization (WHO), 2014) and frequently used locations for suicide. Suicide sites are  usually public, natural or man-made objects known for their use for suicidal behaviour (e.g. bridges or cliffs) (Ross et al., 2020). Some suicide prevention activities […]

Counting suicides and making suicide count as a public health problem

Relatively few countries credibly count their dead (Mathers, Fat, Inoue, Rao, & Lopez, 2005). Thus, differential sophistication as well as sociopolitical and economic support of healthcare and systems to  investigate deaths inevitably leave a large gulf between richer and poorer countries in accurately registering manner and cause of death. And when suicide is in question, […]

Public health surveillance of youth suicide attempts: Challenges and opportunities

Background Surveillance of youth suicide attempts presents many challenges. To assess common data sources that capture information about youth suicidal behavior, we compared counts of high school students who reported (a) a suicide attempt and (b) an injurious suicide attempt, requiring medical treatment in the previous twelve months, with counts of suicide deaths and intentional […]

Geospatial identification of high youth suicide risk areas via electronic health records: Avenues for research and prevention efforts

Objective As suicide risk screening becomes more common in healthcare settings, geospatial coding of behavioral health data may offer a means for identifying areas of elevated suicide risk for use in public health prevention efforts. The present study demonstrates an analytic approach for using universal suicide risk screening data to identify areas of elevated suicide […]

Real-time suicide surveillance supporting policy and practice

Suicide mortality rates are a strong indicator of population mental-health and can be used to determine the efficacy of prevention measures. Monitoring suicide mortality rates in real-time provides an evidence-base to inform targeted interventions in a timely manner and accelerate suicide prevention responses. This paper outlines the importance of real-time suicide surveillance in the context […]

Surveillance of suicide in Canada

The role of the Public Health Agency of Canada is to promote health, prevent and control chronic diseases and injuries, strengthen intergovernmental collaboration on public health, and facilitate national approaches to public health and policy planning. Public health surveillance of disparate data sources is used to estimate the magnitude of suicide-related behaviours, determine the distribution, […]