CSO Suicide Mortality Statistics Liaison Group Meeting
Via Zoom
Wednesday January 18th, 2023 at 2pm
Action Points
- Present: Tim Linehan, David Griffin, Suzi Lyons, Alice Wainwright, Dr Paul Corcoran, Dr Cróna Gallagher, Eileen Williamson, Niall McTernan, Prof Philip Dodd, Prof Ella Arensman, John O'Connor, Kevin Kelly, Laura Galligan
- Apologies: Jackie Hickey, Dr Mary Flanagan
- Action Points: Niall McTernan
Welcome/Introductions
- Eileen welcomed the new CSO chair, Tim Linehan, to the group and thanked Brian and Ger for their contributions. All attendees were invited to provide an introduction and state their employment body.
- Laura and Alice will be taking leave of absence in the coming months, Declan Costello will join in Alice's absence and a representative from the Garda Síochána Analysis Service Section will replace Laura.
Action points and matters arising from the meeting held on October 19th, 2022
- Tim reviewed the minutes and action points from the previous group meeting held on October 19th, 2022.
- Membership of NOSP PULSE Steering Group shared with group members following previous meeting.
- Laura provided an update on the proposed change to the suicide category in An Gárda Síochána Pulse System. Submission remains under review. Chief Superintendent Minnock to provide a further update to the group in Q3 2023.
- Tim, Niall and Philip to meet separately to discuss the annual release of suicide figures.
- In relation to the dissemination of the Irish Probable Suicide Death Report, Dr Gallagher indicated that Dr Eleanor Fitzgerald is the new president of the Coroners Society of Ireland.
Action points
- Tim, Niall and Philip to meet separately to discuss the annual release of suicide figures.
Update on An Gárda Síochána Pulse System/ NOSP data sharing agreement
- Philip informed the group that the Data Sharing Agreement is near completion, pending final sign off.
Update on the Irish Probable Suicide Death Report
- Philip provided a brief overview of the report which was published on November 24th.
- John queried if classification was linked to ICD coding.
Action points
- In-depth presentation of the IPSDS study to be arranged for the next meeting (Philip).
Update on the Suicide and Self-Harm Observatory
- Ella provided an update on data from Cork and Kerry.
- Concern around ongoing increase in suicides in Cork in 2022, particularly involving hanging.
- Concern in relation to the number of individuals from Cork taking their lives in Kerry.
- Ella informed the group that an evaluation of the Observatory will take place and a tender document is currently being prepared.
- Philip notified the group of the recent appointment of Ireland's first online safety commissioner.
- Philip outlined the importance of real time surveillance systems in the overall context of suicide prevention.
ICD-11 Injury and External Causes of Injury Coding Overview
- John provided an overview of ICD-11 Injury and External Causes of Injury Coding. Benefits include:
- HPO and HIPE additional detail
- Proximal risk factors for intentional self-harm included
- Tim stated that the CSO were unlikely to move to ICD-11 coding until 2026.
- John stated that ICD-10 is no longer updated by the WHO.
- Dr Gallagher indicated that there would be no place for a number of variables on the death certification and this would need to be completely re-designed to accommodate ICD-11.
- Tim again reiterated that auxiliary information available in ICD-11 may not be made available in public releases, but stakeholder engagement would follow. Roll out of ICD-11 would likely be in tandem with other European statistics agencies.
- Philip queried if the CSO was linking in with the statistics group at the Department of Health. John indicated that this wasn't currently the case but certainly in the future.
- John provided the following link to the European death certificate: https://icdcdn.who.int/icd11referenceguide/en/html/index.html#international-form-of-medical-certificate-of-cause-of-death
- The group agreed that matching terminology across the board would be beneficial.
- Alice stated that Sharing the Vision and Connecting for Life actions are aligned with group actions and requested that group outcomes are shared to enable reporting.
Date and venue for next meeting
April 20th at 11am, via zoom.
