Suicide and Self-harm, Early and Mid-career Researchers Forum review

With thanks to West Midlands BPS Branch, I had the opportunity to attend the sixth Suicide & Self-harm Early and Mid-career Researchers Forum (EMCRF) organised by the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory.  Led by Prof Rory O'Connor, the Forum offers early career researchers the opportunity to discuss their research and to network within a supportive environment.  This year's conference was the first in-person meeting since the pandemic.  Could I remember how to talk to real people?

Suicide is a global public health priority.  More people die by suicide than of cancer or in road traffic accidents (World Health Organisation, 2021), but suicide prevention receives scant attention and resources compared to these other public health priorities.  This is just one challenge faced by suicide researchers, but there are others: as an early career researcher, how do we know if we will make a difference?  How can we assess the quality of our own research?  How do we cope with the difficult content that we face within our research?  These, and many other questions can be answered by attending the EMCRF held each year at the University of Glasgow in July.

This was the third time I have attended the EMCRF since beginning my PhD in 2017.  As in previous conferences, keynote talks from early and established suicide researchers gave insights into cutting-edge topics and career pathways. Prof. David Gunnell described his experience leading international Covid-19 suicide prevention research collaboration and Dr Katrina Witt described establishing a surveillance system for monitoring self-harm and suicide.  Both tracked their career paths from starting out to becoming internationally recognised suicide researchers, including candid mention of failures as well as successes.  Invited presentations from early career presenters included Dr Mareike Ernst who described using ecological momentary assessment using smartphones to assess how suicidal ideation changes within short time periods and Dr Katerina Kavalidou described how the presentation of self-harm in emergency departments is monitored in Ireland.  These inspirational talks showed that with hard work, determination and opportunities, suicide research really can make a difference.

My own research explores why autistic people are more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and behaviours than people who are not autistic. A recent study reported evidence of autism or possible autism in 41% of people who died by suicide in two local authorities in the UK (Cassidy et al., 2022).  Firstly, within the novel methods session, I presented my PhD data; using network analysis (a cutting edge transdiagnostic statistical technique), I described how anxiety and depression connected with suicidal thoughts for autistic people.  Secondly, within the suicide prevention session, I shared my experience as a Research Assistant, describing the challenges and successes of adapting the card sort task for self-harm (a novel task to help participants talk about contributing factors to self-harm) to an online version to better suit autistic people than the traditional face to face research meeting. 

One advantage of the EMCRF is that it welcomes work in progress or planned work meaning you can receive feedback on research ideas, share ongoing experience and build your confidence as a presenter within the scientific community.  Other panel sessions included living and lived experience, risk and recovery, national and international perspectives on suicide.  EMCRF gives early career researchers the opportunity to share their research with a supportive, informed environment and contextualise it within wider ongoing research.

Finally, I connected with colleagues I had met at previous Forums and new faces.  Self-care is a priority for suicide researchers due to the emotionally challenging nature of suicide.  The EMCRF allows us the opportunity to support each other informally, but also to access supportive networks, such as the netECR (International Network of Early Career Researchers in Suicide and Self-harm) and the International Association for Suicide Prevention Early Career Group (IASP ECG). 

Following the conference, I was inspired to work harder as a researcher, with a stack of fascinating papers, practical advice and guidance from peers and colleagues.  Thankfully, I hadn't completely forgotten how to talk to people during the lockdown!  Overall, I highly recommend the EMCRF as an inexpensive, friendly, supportive conference, highlighting high quality, dedicated suicide research that can make a real difference. I am grateful for being part of this and I am excited to contribute to future research in this area.

Mirabel Pelton is a PhD researcher at Coventry University Centre for Intelligent Healthcare.  She is committed to undertake in research in partnership with autistic people to better understand and support autistic people experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Read about her research here and follow her on Twitter.