Trends in mental health, non-suicidal self-harm and suicide attempts in 16-24-year old students and non-students in England, 2000-2014

There are concerns about high levels of mental ill-health amongst university students, but little is known about the mental health of students compared to non-students over time. Using data on young people (16-24) from three UK National Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys (2000, 2007, and 2014), we found no evidence that the overall prevalence of common mental disorder (CMD), suicide attempts, or non-suicidal self-harm (NSSH) differed between students and non-students, although there was an indication that CMDs rose markedly in female students between 2007 and 2014. A rise in NSSH is apparent in both students and non-students

Suicidal behaviour across the African continent:a review of the literature

Background: Suicide is a major cause of premature mortality worldwide, but data on its epidemiology in Africa, the world’s second most populous continent, are limited. Methods: We systematically reviewed published literature on suicidal behaviour in African countries. We searched PubMed, Web of Knowledge, PsycINFO, African Index Medicus, Eastern Mediterranean Index Medicus and African Journals OnLine and carried out citation searches of key articles. We crudely estimated the incidence of suicide and suicide attempts in Africa based on country-specific data and compared these with published estimates. We also describe common features of suicide and suicide attempts across the studies, including information related to age, sex, methods used and risk factors. Results: Regional or national suicide incidence data were available for less than one third (16/53) of African countries containing approximately 60% of Africa’s population; suicide attempt data were available for <20% of countries (7/53). Crude estimates suggest there are over 34,000 (inter-quartile range 13,141 to 63,757) suicides per year in Africa, with an overall incidence rate of 3.2 per 100,000 population. The recent Global Burden of Disease (GBD) estimate of 49,558 deaths is somewhat higher, but falls within the inter-quartile range of our estimate. Suicide rates in men are typically at least three times higher than in women. The most frequently used methods of suicide are hanging and pesticide poisoning. Reported risk factors are similar for suicide and suicide attempts and include interpersonal difficulties, mental and physical health problems, socioeconomic problems and drug and alcohol use/ abuse. Qualitative studies are needed to identify additional culturally relevant risk factors and to understand how risk factors may be connected to suicidal behaviour in different socio-cultural contexts. Conclusions: Our estimate is somewhat lower than GBD, but still clearly indicates suicidal behaviour is an important public health problem in Africa. More regional studies, in both urban and rural areas, are needed to more accurately estimate the burden of suicidal behaviour across the continent. Qualitative studies are required in addition to quantitative studies

Variations in the hospital management of self harm in adults in England: observational study

More than 140 000 people present to hospital after an episode of self harm each year in England and Wales. Improving the general hospital management of these people is a key area in preventing suicide. Although professional consensus has been reached on how self harm services should be organised and delivered, wide variations in care delivery have been reported in two regions in England. Using a nationally representative sample, we investigated the variation in services and delivery of care for self harm patients in hospitals in England

The Ball State University Honors College Oral History Project

The Ball State University Honors College is a liberal arts institution in a public university. As the first Honors Program in the state of Indiana, the Honors College is the birthplace of creativity, innovation and profound thought. Despite the significance of the Honors College, there is no current written history of the Ball State University Honors College on its sixtieth anniversary. This project aims to contribute to the history of the Ball State University Honors College by using long-form, oral history interviews to create primary sources of the Honors College. We used oral history interviews as the medium to do this because the oral history interview better showcases the subject’s emotions, putting the humanity back in history. My portion of the project included the interview of three faculty members, Dr. Joseph Trimmer, Dr. John Emert, and Dr. Donald Gilman, which will be added to the other thirty-one administrators, staff, faculty and alumni. All the interviews will be permanently archived from the Ball State University Libraries Digital Media Repository, where the videos will be streamable and the transcripts accessible. By interviewing these faculty, I discovered how the Honors College offered opportunities that impacted the university as a whole.Thesis (D.A.)Honors Colleg