Self-harm and Help-seeking: Service-User and Practitioner Perspectives

Dr Maggie Long, Dr Roger Manktelow, Dr Anne Tracey (Ulster) Self-harm is a significant public health issue and an important risk factor for suicide, about which there is a lack of Northern Ireland-based research. Self-harm is recognised to be considerably more prevalent than is suggested by reported figures based on hospital emergency department presentations. Self-harm … Read more

Findings from the Registry of Self Harm for Northern Ireland

Dr Denise O’Hagan, (QUB) A National Registry of Self-Harm has been operating in the Republic of Ireland since 2002. Under the Northern Ireland (NI) Suicide Strategy a Registry of Self Harm was piloted in the Western Health & Social Care (HSC) Trust area from 2007. The Registry was then implemented across all five HSC Trusts … Read more

Alcohol, Drugs and Suicide – interactions between misuse in the life course and at the time of death

Dr Karen Galway (QUB) While substance misuse is a recognised risk factor in suicide, relatively little is known about the relationship between lifetime misuse and misuse at the time of suicide. It is widely assumed that many cases of suicide, particularly in young people, are associated with illicit drug use. However an analysis of suicides … Read more

Dismantling the peace walls by 2023: “rational” or “irrational” policy thinking?

Dr Jonny Byrne, Prof Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Dr Duncan Morrow (Ulster) In May 2013, the Northern Ireland Executive published a new community relations strategy document, ‘Together: Building a United Community’, which set itself the ambitious target of removing ALL interface barriers (peace walls) by 2023. Peace walls and interface barriers designed to secure communities through … Read more

Shared Education and collaboration between schools in a contested space setting

Dr Gavin Duffy and Prof Tony Gallagher (QUB) This presentation is based on a three-year study by Duffy and Gallagher (2014) from the Sharing Education Programme at the School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast. The study contextualised shared learning between pupils and collaboration between teachers and leaders within a shared education partnership, comprising of eight … Read more

Tackling Sectarianism and its consequences in Scotland: comparisons with approaches to sectarianism in NI

Dr Duncan Morrow (Ulster) Sectarian divisions from both the politics of church and state and mass immigration from Ireland have left their mark on Scottish as well as Irish society. In 2012, the Scottish Government established an Advisory Group on Tackling Sectarianism to investigate the modern legacy of sectarianism and to advise the government on … Read more