Event Resources – Suicide Prevention: New Frontiers Conference

Monday 27th February, 09:30 – 16:30
Rheged Centre, Penrith, Cumbria

Register on EventBrite

The conference will give an update on the latest models and evidence in the field of suicide prevention aiming to support the development of best practice around suicide prevention across a range of settings and patient groups.

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Presentations
Working Together to Understand and Prevent Suicide – Prof Rory O’Connor
Understanding Self-harm and Suicidality in Young People – Prof Ellen Townsend
The Roles of Social Modelling and Exposure in Self-harm Thoughts and Behaviours – Dr Olivia J. Kirtley
Suicide mitigation: combining compassion and governance in suicide prevention – Dr Alys Cole-King

In the Press
Conference to Shed Light on Taboo of Suicide
Seminar to Address Higher Suicide Rates
Exploring New Frontiers in Suicide Prevention – Lake District Herald
Exploring New Frontiers in Suicide Prevention – Cumberland and Westmorland Herald
Cumbrian Mental Health Groups Set to Tackle County’s High Suicide Rates
Suicide isn’t an inevitable outcome of suicidal thoughts’ – The Psychologist

Agenda
09:15-09:45
 Registration
09:45-10:00
 Welcome and Introductions
Dr Claire Kenwood, Associate Medical Director of Quality
Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
10:00-11:00
 Working Together to Understand and Prevent Suicide
Professor Rory O’Connor, Professor of Health Psychology
Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, University of Glasgow
11:00-11:30
 Refreshment Break
11:30-12:30
 Understanding Self-harm and Suicidality in Young People
Professor Ellen Townsend, Professor of Psychology
University of Nottingham
12:30-13:15
 Lunch and Networking
13:15-14:15
 The Roles of Social Modelling and Exposure in Self-harm Thoughts and Behaviours
Dr Olivia J. Kirtley, Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Ghent
14:15-15:15
 Suicide mitigation: combining compassion and governance in suicide prevention
Dr Alys Cole-King
Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Clinical Director, Connecting with People and Open Minds Health
15:15-15:45
 Refreshment Break
15:45-16:15
 Panel Discussions
16:15-16:30
 Final Comments
16:30
 Close

Meet the Speakers
Dr Claire Kenwood
Associate Medical Director of Quality, Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Claire.Kenwood@cumbria.nhs.uk
@CPFTNHSClaire is the Associate Medical Director for Quality at Cumbria Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, in addition to being an AQuA Board member. Claire studied medicine at the University of Birmingham and qualified as a doctor in 1988. Her clinical participation has been working with those who have long term psychosis, being involved in the redesign and improvement of rehabilitation and community services in Southampton, Trafford and West Lothian, where she has held Consultant posts. Claire was also recently confirmed as a member of the 2015 foundation cohort for the ‘Q Initiative’.
Dr Olivia Kirtley
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Ghent, Belgium
olivia.kirtley@ugent.be
@LivveyKirtleyOlivia Kirtley is a postdoctoral research psychologist in the Ghent Health Psychology Lab at Universiteit Gent in Belgium, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.Olivia’s research looks at physical pain sensitivity in people who self-harm and how this relates to sensitivity to emotional pain. Her work also explores some of the factors that may be involved in someone moving from thinking about self-harm to acting upon those thoughts, including social modelling and exposure to self-harm in others. Broadly,Olivia’s research interests lie in using biological and psychological methods to investigate self-harm and suicidal behaviour. Currently she is working on DOLORisk, a multi-centre European project supported by Horizon2020, which looks at the psychosocial underpinnings of chronic pain.
Professor Rory O’Connor
Professor of Health Psychology, Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, University of Glasgow
rory.oconnor@glasgow.ac.uk
@suicideresearchRory O’Connor PhD CPsychol AFBPsS FAcSS is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and Past President of the International Academy of Suicide Research. Rory leads the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory at Glasgow, one of the leading suicide/self-harm research groups in the UK.  He has published extensively in the field of suicide and self-harm, specifically concerning the psychological processes which precipitate suicidal behaviour and self-harm. In addition, he is author of Understanding Suicidal Behaviour (with Noel Sheehy), co-editor of The Routledge Major Works Series on Suicide (with Keith Hawton) and of the International Handbook of Suicide Prevention (2nd edition with Jane Pirkis) and of The Routledge Major Works Series on Health Psychology (forthcoming, with Daryl O’Connor).He was also the UK National Representative for the International Association for Suicide Prevention and is a member of the American Association of Suicidology.  He serves on the Scientific Review Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and is an Associate Editor of Archives of Suicide Research, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior and Behavior Therapy. Rory acts as an advisor to a range of national and international organisations including national governments on the areas of suicide and self-harm.
Professor Ellen Townsend
Professor of Psychology, University of Nottingham, UK
Ellen.Townsend@nottingham.ac.uk
@SelfHarmNottsEllen holds a B.A. (Hons) from the University of Leeds and a PhD from the University of Nottingham. Before joining Nottingham as a Lecturer in 2001 she spent three years as a post-doctoral researcher in the Centre for Suicide Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. Ellen is a member of the PSPH in the School of Psychology and PI of the Self-Harm Research Group (SHRG).Ellen has published widely in the field and her group researches psychological factors associated with self-harm and suicidality, and interventions that promote recovery, especially in young people using a range of techniques including sequence analysis, the Card Sort Task for Self-Harm (CaTS), experiments, questionnaires, epidemiology, interviews and systematic reviews. This work has been funded by the NHS, NIHR, DH and the ESRC and has influenced policy including the 2011 NICE Guidance on the Longer Term Management of Self-Harm and the 2016 Public Health England Practice Resource on Local Suicide Prevention Planning.She is a Fellow of the International Academy of Suicide Research, member of the BPS Expert Panel on the Psychology of Suicidal Behaviour and the current ESRC large grant panel.  She has been awarded a Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at the University of Melbourne which takes place later this year.
Dr Alys Cole-King
Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Clinical Director, Connecting with People and Open Minds Health
@AlysColeKingDr Alys Cole-King works nationally with Royal Colleges, voluntary bodies, academics, practitioners and experts by experience. A contributor to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Suicide and Self-harm Prevention, Alys sits on several Royal College Groups and has contributed to the RCGP curricula. Alys undertook a yearlong research project using psychological autopsy techniques to investigate factors associated with patient self-harm and attempted suicide whilst under the care of specialist mental health services. She promotes the need for compassion, collaboration and eradicating stigma in suicide and self-harm mitigation and prevention and the value of a common language to ensure improved response to people at risk of suicide. As Connecting with People Clinical Director,Alys has been developing the innovative approach of suicide mitigation and the clinical elements which form the basis of the Connecting with People SAFETool assessment framework over the last 24 years of her clinical practice.Alys sits on the Editorial Board of the of Journal of Compassionate Health Care, is a reviewer for international journals and has published several chapters, articles, podcasts, webinars and e-learning modules including the BMJ Masterclass Webinar on suicide mitigation and the RCGP e-learning on suicide and self-harm mitigation and prevention. She led the development a portfolio of online and paper based self-help resources on suicide and self-harm prevention and wrote the Professional Cricketers’ Association online module on suicide and self-harm.Alys sits on the international Expert Reference Group advising Griffiths University academics, a WHO Collaborating Centre on responding to professionals who have experienced the suicide of a patient.Alys leads international campaigns via social media and works with the media (film, radio and newspapers), to ensure a compassionate and safe approach to suicide prevention. She has experience of engaging and leading large consortiums, and was the instigator and Executive Producer of the U Can Cope film released on 2012 World Suicide Prevention Day and launched in Parliament.  She led recruitment of the main partners, funding partners and hundreds of supporting organisations. She has also led several NHS Changeday pledges. Profiled in The Lancet and Advances in Psychiatric Treatment and Medical Women’s Federation Journals Journals Alys is an active Twitter user and regularly hosts and contributes to Tweetchats

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