Canadian Research and Knowledge Translation Agenda on Suicide

Does injury prevention belong in the suicide prevention conversation?

~90% of completed suicides have an underlying mental health component. Suicide, therefore, is predominantly a mental health/psychosocial issue. Suicide is only injurious if it is incomplete and, in such cases, the subsequent physical injury is typically the least concerning issue. A completed suicide is coded as a death. One can not simply put a helmet on suicide. Is it not then patronizing to suicidic individuals to reduce their condition to merely a preventable injury?

Why is the number of male suicides roughly 3 times higher than that of females in most age categories?

Gendering suicide

Do individuals have the right to take their own life?

Modern society tends toward prolonging life and fosters a fear of death. People who have experienced a suicidic state are expected to suffer through their despair such that the 'bereaved are spared the grief, sadness, and loss. Much of current suicide prevention dialogue centers around a "you can't die because I would be sad" mentality, rather than focussing on the despair the subject is experiencing.

Should we have the suicide talk with children, the same way way there is sex education or "the talk?"

Effective Short-term Psychotherapies addressing self destructive drives rooted in childhood adverse experiences need to made made available

The Canadian made and exported brief therapy model called Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy has shown it self to be the most effective and efficient treatments for individuals with treatment refractory depression http://www.cochrane.org/CD010558/DEPRESSN_are-psychological-therapies-effective-treating-depression-did-not-get-better-previous-treatment as well as personality disorders https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/medicine/departments/department-sites/psychiatry/centre-emotions-health/short_term_dynamic_psychotherapy.pdf and the combination of these 2 https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/medicine/departments/department-sites/psychiatry/centre-emotions-health/depn-pd_2011.pdf . This and related approaches are more effective than other bona fide treatment in follow up https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26390013 . Despite these and 50 other studies of its effectiveness, the method is not available to most Canadians while it is widely used in other countries especially in Scandinavia. The Canadian governments should work to have this approach available to the public country wide.

Peer-reviewed publications of research studies and systematic reviews

These are NOT the most accessible nor quickest means of obtaining information. However, if one has a high stake in a topic (e.g., because one is personally or professionally invovled with the topic) and one doesn't want to rely on someone else's summary of the research, one really has to plow into the primary literature.

Accessible documents that allow for various populations to access research findings and implement their suggestions

There is always a gap in time between the creation of knowledge and the implementation of that knowledge. This gap may be in part due to the difficulty of access to research findings by those outside of academic circles. Relevant research findings should not be available only to those with paid access to peer-reviewed journal articles or the ability to attend conferences. A knowledge transfer plan for suicide research findings should include free public access to information in various forms, such as online materials and print materials in accessible language. By working together to close the knowledge transfer gap, we can quicken the uptake of new, evidence-based practices, and overall improve the ability of communities at large to strengthen suicide prevention efforts.

One page, easy to read summary of research findings and impact on practice and/or behaviour

Traditional means of communication are great if you know how to access them and have the time to do so. Front-line practitioners and members of the public are usually lacking at least one of these requirements. Make it simple, in language that someone outside of health care can understand.

All mediums in easy to comprehend language

It's not the medium that needs to change it's the language so that all walks of life can understand, get rid of the medical language so the 90% of the population can be educated

Educational material and fact sheets