Using real-time suicide monitoring systems to inform policy and practice

Many countries have now established, or are establishing, suicide monitoring systems (Baran et al., 2021). These systems typically use data from police reports and death certificates to identify suspected suicides,  with key information about the deceased entered into a register soon after death. Information entered into the register may include the location of death and the deceased’s place of residence, the geocoordinates of  these locations, the age and sex of the deceased, and information about the method of suicide. Because information is entered soon after death, these registers act as real-time or near realtime surveillance systems.