Page 8 - Intuition, Imagination and Innovation in Suicidology Conference. 13th Triple i | Koper · Slovenia | 31 May–1 June 2022
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h Triple i | Koper · Slovenia | 31 May–1 June 2022 Time to Address the ‘Causes of the Causes:’
Effective Suicide Prevention Also Requires
Sound Policy Interventions

Invited lecture · Stephen Platt

Prof. Platt has a long-term research interest in socioeconomic, sociocultural and
epidemiological aspects of suicide, self-harm and mental health. He has conduc-
ted research on a wide range of topics, including self-harm as a subculture (writ-
ten up as a doctoral dissertation), the labour market and suicidal behaviour, the
treatment and management of self-harm, national suicide prevention program-
mes, inequality and inequity in suicidal behaviour, contextual effects, suicide clu-
sters, contagion and imitation in self-harm, and the impact of Covid-19 on suici-
de and self-harm. He is an adviser on suicide prevention research and policy to
Public Health Scotland and Scotland’s National Suicide Prevention Leadership
Group (NSPLG), and co-chair of the NSPLG’s Academic Advisory Group. He cha-
irs the Steering Group for the Scottish Suicide Information Database (ScotSID),
a central repository for information on all probable suicide deaths in Scotland,
which supports epidemiology, policy-making and suicide preventive activity in
the country. He is a consultant to the Irish National Office for Suicide Preventi-
on, advising on the development, implementation and evaluation of the coun-
try’s suicide prevention strategy (‘Connecting for Life’) and chairing the associ-
ated Evaluation Advisory Group. He is an ex-Vice-President of the International
Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) and current co-chair of the IASP Special
Interest Group (SIG) on the Development of Effective National Suicide Prevention
Strategy and Practice.

Abstract. It is increasingly recognised that suicide is a multi-determined,
‘complex’ behaviour, requiring inputs from a wide range of academic di-
sciplines and a comprehensive, wide-based public health approach to its
prevention. Recent models of suicide presented in academic articles and
suicide prevention strategy statements portray the interactive, multi-level
nature of the behaviour, distinguishing between population and individu-
al risk factors (grouped into predisposing, mediating and precipitating fac-
tors), or adopting a socioecological framework (individual-level risk factors
embedded within life experiences/relationships factors, which are embed-
ded within community risk factors, which are embedded within societal risk

8 https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-184-1.1
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