The Suicide Observatory in Cork and Kerry was established to address the need for timely suicide mortality data in Ireland, as usual processes of data collection and classification can take two years or more. Founded in Cork in 2018 by the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) and University College Cork’s School of Public Health, its main aim was to generate near real-time data of suspected suicides to monitor emerging trends, inform suicide prevention efforts and support for people bereaved by suicide, and guide appropriate media reporting.
This evaluation of the implementation and scalability of the Suicide Observatory has examined seven of its key attributes: sensitivity, positive predictive value, data quality, timeliness, simplicity, accessibility, and acceptability, alongside its overall usefulness. It has provided findings and recommendations on the operation, impact and scalability of the Suicide Observatory.
This evaluation was conducted by the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing in The University of Melbourne, for the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP).
