National Suicide Research Foundation

The National Suicide Research Foundation is an independent, multi-disciplinary research unit that investigates the causes of suicide and self-harm in Ireland.

Our diverse research team members come from a broad range of disciplines, including epidemiology, psychology, psychiatry and biostatistics. We are a registered charity (CHY11351) based in Western Gateway Building, University College Cork, Ireland.

We undertake research into varying topics relating to suicide and self-harm in Ireland. Based on this research and its findings, we provide the knowledge base for suicide prevention, intervention and postvention strategies.

We also provide training and positive mental health promotional programmes to a variety of audiences.

The National Suicide Research Foundation was established in 1994 by Dr. Michael Kelleher, at the request of the then Minister for Health, Brendan Howlin TD.

The brief was to conduct research into suicide and suicidal behaviour due to concerns regarding the accuracy of Irish suicide statistics and lack of knowledge of the extent of suicidal behaviour in the country.

Publications

Our publications can be found here

Diabetes-related Research

Dr Tony Fitzgerald is working with Dr Catherine McGorrian, McMaster University, on a revised risk prediction system that incorporates Diabetes.

Dr Sheena Mc Hugh has collaborated with the Diabetes in General Practice group, the Midlands Structured Diabetes Care Programme and HSE North East DiabetesWatch programme on audit and quality assurance of diabetes care in general practice.

Emergency and Urgent Care Systems (EUCS)

Professor John Browne is collaborating with colleagues in University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and University College Dublin on a research programme evaluating emergency and urgent care systems in Ireland.

HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research National Collaborations

Development of headline food poverty indicators with Dr. Mary O'Riordan, Public Health Registrar, Health Services Executive (HSE) West, Ireland

Development and management of CAWT Obesity Learning Network (CAWT: Co-operation and Working Together) and Partnership with safefood's "All-Ireland Obesity Forum" newsletter with Dr. Eimear Barrett, Public Health Intelligence Officer, School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Updating of population prevalence estimates and forecasts for diabetes, hypertension, stroke and CHD with Mr. John Hughes, Researcher, UKCRC Centre of Excellence for Public Health, Northern Ireland

Development and management of website and web group for Northern Ireland's Public Health Research Network with Professor Frank Kee, Director of Centre of Excellence for Public Health (NI), Queens University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Part-funding and participation in the “Health Expectancy” project with Dr. Roger O’Sullivan, Director, Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI)

Part-funding and participation in the development of management of the online “Physical Activity and Nutrition Intervention (PANI) Tool” for the HSE’s National Obesity Implementation Group and PHA’s Obesity Prevention Planning Group (in Northern Ireland) with Ms. Angela McComb, Nutrition lead, Public Health Agency (NI) and Dr. Nazih Eldin, Obesity lead, Health Services Executive (HSE)

Development of headline food poverty indicators, in collaboration with Safefood and Northern Ireland Food Poverty Network (Dr Cliodhna Foley-Nolan, Safefood)

Formal website contributors pool of digital resources accessible through the Obesity Hub website through collaborations with FSAI, Centre for Cross Border Studies, and Irish Sports Council

Bone development of infants of the nutrition in pregnancy study with Professor Malachi McKenna, Professor of Endocrinology, University College Dublin and Professor Molloy, Department of Medicine, University College Cork 

Collaboration on infant follow-up with Professor Eleanor Molloy, Department of Paediatrics, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Dublin

Exercise interventions in pregnancy with Professor Giuseppe DeVito, Professor of Performance Science, Institute for Sport and Health, UCD

Basic scientists to collaborate with analysis of blood samples with Dr Brendan Egan, Lecturer in Sports and Exercise Science, Institute for Sport and Health, UCD

Collaboration with Professor Ian Pitt, MultiMedia Group, Department of Computer Science, University College Cork is supported with seed funding from UCC Medical School under the TRAP (Translational Research Access Programme) awarded in February 2012

Collaboration with Dr. Eamon Dolan, James Connolly Memorial Hospital, Blanchardstown, Dublin and Professor Eoin O’Brien, UCD Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research, UCD.

Collaboration with Dr Mary Cahill, Consultant Haematologist, Cork University Hospital.

Collaboration with Dr Stephen Byrne, Senior Lecturer, UCC School of Pharmacy, UCC.

Collaboration with Dr Richard Layte, Senior Researcher, Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the ”Growing up in Ireland’  children’s cohort study.

Collaboration between HRC Cluster 3-Project 1: Diet, Obesity and Health in Adults (Cork & Kerry Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies) and TILDA with Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Trinity College Dublin & Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). 

Collaboration with Professor Frank Kee, Centre of Excellence for Public Health (Northern Ireland), Queens University Belfast.

Collaboration with Professor Anthony Staines, Dublin City University, Professor Ciaran O’Neill, NUI Galway, Dr. Linda Sharpe, National Cancer Registry and Professor Frank Kee, Queens University Belfast which draws on expertise within Cluster 1 and cluster 3 is on the SafeFood funded study of “The cost of overweight and obesity on the island of Ireland”

Collaboration with Prof. Fionnuala McAuliffe, Dr. Eileen Gibney, Dr Celine Murrin and Prof. Mike Gibney, University College Dublin i

Collaboration with the Association for the Study of Obesity on the island of Ireland (ASOI), including organisation of inaugural 1-day conference September 6th 2012, and European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2013) satellite meeting on May 16th 2012: Addressing the Physical Co-morbidities of Obesity- Cardiorespiratory and Musculoskeletal Factors

Collaboration with Dr Sinead Murphy a consultant paediatrician with an interest in paediatric obesity at Temple Street, Children’s University Hospital and the lead Consultant Paediatrician on the intervention study: “Integrating technology and paediatric weight management. A randomized controlled trial”. Dr. Aoife Brinkley (Senior Clinical Psychologist) is a co-investigator on this study.

Dr. Francis Finucane, Consultant Endocrinologist, Galway Weight Management Unit, University College Hospital, Galway is a partner in the National Obesity Clinic Database Study in Cluster 4.

Collaboration with the National Adult Nutrition Survey (NANS) Cluster through Dr. Janette Walton, University College Cork to organise a food and health behaviour conference.

Safefood partly funded and collaborated in organising the food and health behaviour conference also which marked the launch of the safefood consumer-focused review on food behaviour. Safefood collaborator was Dr. Cliodhna Foley-Nolan

Collaboration with Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, UCD 

Collaboration on PEARS project with Prof Fionuala McAuliffe, Holles St & UCD

Collaboration with UCD researchers on the FP7 Food RisC project. 

HRB Centre for Health and Diet Research International Collaborations

Collaboration with Dr. Tim Marsh, Director (Modelling), National Heart Forum, UK.

Inclusion of obesity-related interventions from the National Obesity Observatory (UK) in the Obesity Hub with Dr Harry Rutter, Director of the National Obesity Observatory (England) UK.

Epigenetic analysis of infant saliva in the follow-up study of the nutrition in pregnancy study with Professor Moshe Szyf, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Professor Berthold Koletzko, Division of Metabolic Diseases and Nutritional Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital University of Munich, Germany.

FP7 application in early childhood nutrition with Professor Lucilla Poston, Imperial College, London, UK – this application has been successful.

Collaboration on the infant follow-up study with Professor Keith Godfrey, Professor of Epidemiology and Human Development, University of Southamptom, UK.

Collaboration with Dr. Carol Boushey, Nutritionist with the Epidemiology Program, University of Hawai'i Cancer Center, USA.

Collaboration Dr Darren Dahly, Lecturer in Epidemiology Biostatistics, Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Leeds, UK and Prof Mark Gilthorpe, Professor of Statistical Epidemiology and Institute Director of the Leeds Institute of Genetics, Health and Therapeutics (LIGHT), University of Leeds, UK.

Collaboration with Professor Nick Wareham and Dr Søren Brage, MRC Epidemiology Unit Institute of Metabolic Science and The Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR): a UKCRC funded Centre of Excellence in Public Health Research

Professor Simon Capewell and Dr Martin O’Flaherty at the School of Population, Community and Behavioural Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK and Professor Kathleen Bennett, Department of National Pharmacoepidemiology Centre, Trinity College Dublin.

Collaboration with Professor Simon Capewell and Dr Martin O’Flaherty at the School of Population, Community and Behavioural Sciences, University of Liverpool, UK and Professor Kathleen Bennett, Department of National Pharmacoepidemiology Centre, Trinity College Dublin. 

Collaboration on EU FP7-HEALTH-2011-two-stage with Professor David J Stott, Geriatric Medicine, University of Glasgow, and EU partners. Collaborative Project application. Proposal full title: Multi-modal effects of Thyroid hormone Replacement for Untreated older adults with Subclinical hypothyroidism; a randomised placebo-controlled Trial.

Collaboration with Dr Charles Foster & Dr Amanda Burls, BHF Health Promotion Research Group, University of Oxford, IHS, Old Road, Headington, Oxford, UK focused on “Integrating technology and paediatric weight management. A randomized controlled trial”.

Childhood Task Force of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) (www.easo.org/childhood-obesity-cotf). Grace O'Malley is the elected Irish representative on this group and is actively participating in guideline development around training for primary care practitioners in childhood obesity assessment and management.

Ms. Grace O'Malley is an international collaborator with the Yale obesity Clinic under the supervision of Prof Sonia Caprio and Mary Savoye. 

Informal collaboration with Dr V Mohan and the Diabetes Research Foundation, India

Informal collaboration with Dr Sharron Kuznesof, Lecturer, School of Agriculture Food and Rural Development, University of Newcastle, UK

Dr Catherine Phillips is collaborating with the EU FP7 BioShare Healthy Obesity Project

Mother and Child Health Research

Ms. Sinéad O’Neill, Dr. Patricia Kearney, Professor Louise Kenny and Dr. Ali Khashan (INFANT Research Centre) and Professor Richard Greene (NPEC) are working with Professor Preben Bo. Mortensen and Professor Esben Agerbo of the National Centre for Register-based Research (NCRR) in Aarhus University Denmark as well as Professor Tine Brink Henriksen of the Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit (PERU), Aarhus University Hospital to investigate the risk of subsequent stillbirth, miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy in women with a primary Caesarean section. The waiting time to next birth following a Caesarean section will also be investigated in comparison to women who had a primary vaginal delivery. This study uses a cohort of over 800,000 women from the Danish Civil Registration System (CRS).

Ms. Sinéad O’Neill, Dr. Patricia Kearney, Professor Louise Kenny and Dr. Ali Khashan (INFANT Research Centre) and Professor Richard Greene (NPEC) are working with Professor Preben Bo. Mortensen and Professor Esben Agerbo of the National Centre for Register-based Research (NCRR) in Aarhus University Denmark as well as Professor Tine Brink Henriksen of the Perinatal Epidemiology Research Unit (PERU), Aarhus University Hospital to investigate the risk of neonatal death and morbidity in women with an elective repeat Caesarean section compared to women undergoing a vaginal birth after Caesarean section (VBAC). This study will use the Aarhus Birth Cohort (ABC) data [n=100,000+] linked with the Danish CRS data.

Ms. Sinéad O’Neill, along with Professor Louise Kenny and Dr. Ali Khashan (of the INFANT Research Centre) have worked with Dame Tina Lavender and Dr. Tracy Mills of the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, and Dr. Roseanne MacNamee of the Biostatistics Group of the School of Community-Based Medicine, University of Manchester. Using data from the North Western Perinatal Survey (NWPS) in the UK, the risk of adverse pregnancy outcome in women of advanced maternal age were investigated in a cohort of over 200,000 women.

Ms. Sinéad O’Neill, Dr. Ali Khashan (INFANT Research Centre), Dr. Catherine Sweeney, Marie Murphy, Tony O’Brien, and Siun O’Flynn (of Marymount University Hospice/St Patricks University Hospital & School of Medicine, University College Cork), along with Ann McAuliffe and  Bridie McCarthy (School of Nursing, University College Cork) collaborated to examine the educational impact of an optional inter-professional education (IPE) module in palliative care for undergraduate medical and nursing students.

Ms. Sinéad O’Neill, Dr. Ali Khashan (INFANT Research Centre), Dr. Gene Dempsey and Dr. Darragh Finn (Neonatal Research Unit, Cork University Maternity Hospital) are working on data including over 4,000 women with elective Caesarean sections to investigate the risk of adverse neonatal outcome, particularly admission to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) according to completed week of gestation. 

Dr Tony Fitzgerald is collaborating with Dr Geraldine Boylan, Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, UCC on a number of studies relating to automated seizure detection in newborns and the long-term neuro-development of newborns with HIE.

National Burden of Disease Study

Dr Zubair Kabir is collaborating with colleagues in the Institute of Public Health Ireland on the national burden of disease study.

Nutrition-related Research

Dr Tony Fitzgerald is working with Professor Kevin Cashman and Dr. Mairead Kiely in Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences on a programme investigating the dietary requirement for vitamin D and the health implications of improving vitamin D status in adults and elderly.

Dr Tony Fitzgerald is working with Dr Paul O’Toole in the Department of Microbiology on a study looking at microbiota as an indicator and agent of nutritional health in elderly Irish subjects.

Occupational Health Research

Dr Greiner and Ms Vera McCarthy are collaborating with Dr Ellen Rosskam, Visiting Professor, University of Massachusetts, Lowell, Work Environment Department, USA and the International Transport Workers Federation in London on a research project on stress and fatigue in airline workers.

Dr Greiner is collaborating with Dr Niklas Krause, University of California San Francisco, Department of Occupational Medicine on musculoskeletal injury in urban transit operators. 

Dr Greiner is collaborating with the University of Nottingham, Institute of Work Health & Organisations, WHO Collaborating Centre (Socrates student, staff mobility agreement).

Oral Health Research

Ms Mary Cronin and Ms Sarah Meaney collaborated with Dr Finbarr Allen, Cork University Dental School and Hospital and Dr Michael Cronin, Department of Statistics, UCC, on a study into patients’ experiences of tooth loss and the use of partial dentures, which was funded by the Chief Dental Officer of Ireland.

Screening Programmes Research

Dr Sheena Mc Hugh and Prof. Ivan Perry have collaborated with the Diabetes Services Implementation Group (DSIG) Cork/Kerry on the evaluation of community-based retinopathy screening for people with diabetes.

Dr Sheena Mc Hugh, Prof. Ivan Perry and Prof. John Browne have collaborated with Dr Orla Healy, Public Health Specialist (HSE South) and Prof. Charles Normand in the Centre for Health Policy and Management in Trinity College on an efficiency review of the national breast screening programme. 

The Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing (TILDA)

Dr Patricia Kearney is working with Professor Rose Anne Kenny, Chair of Geriatric Medicine at TCD and Professor Ivan Perry, UCC on the Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing which will collect data on health, economic and social variables on older people.

Dr Sheena Mc Hugh is working with Aoife McNamara and Prof. Charles Normand in the Centre for Health Policy & Management, TCD, on a project to examine end-of-life care in the older Irish population using data from the Irish LongituDinal Study on Ageing (TILDA). 

Tobacco-related Research

Dr Birgit Greiner, Ms Bernie Mullally and Ms Sarah Meaney are collaborating with Dr Shane Allwright of Trinity College Dublin and the Office of Tobacco Control on the impacts of the smoking ban.

Dr Zubair Kabir is collaborating with colleagues in the Harvard School of Public Health and the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland on tobacco control epidemiological and public health policy studies.