Every year in England there are over 4,000 suicides and 140,000 people go to hospital following self-harm (“attempted suicide”). The aim of this programme of research is to carry out a series of linked studies who purpose is to improve the management of self-harm, reduce the incidence of suicide and provide reliable data to evaluate the impact of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England (2002).

The research is a collaboration between the Universities of Bristol [lead Professor David Gunnell], Oxford [lead Professor Keith Hawton] and Manchester [lead Professor Nav Kapur], the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Over 15 collaborating researchers, service users and voluntary sector representatives are part of the research group.

The programme has four specific elements :
(i) A study of the management of self-harm in 32 English hospitals that aims to determine which aspects of care affect the risk of repeat self-harm.
(ii) The development and piloting of contact-based interventions aimed at reducing the risk of self-harm after hospital discharge and A&E attendance for self-harm.
(iii) An evaluation of the impacts on population health and suicide of recent regulations on the prescribing of co-proxamol and the purchase of paracetamol, and the impact of other prescribed medicines on suicide.
(iv) An assessment of the reliability of national suicide data in assessing the impact of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy and other influences on national suicide rates.