Conference Agenda

Suicide is a leading cause of death among young women and perinatal mothers. In this paper, I explore how expectations of motherhood played a role in young women's deaths by suicide. Through analysis of 31 young Australian mothers who died by suicide, I unpack how the notion that motherhood is a “protective” factor against suicide undermined women experiencing suicidality. Using the concept of “intensive motherhood,” I interrogate how expectations of mothers became fatal. Three key themes are explored, centered upon the theme of “failing motherhood”: mothering without a father, mothering with mental illness, and the loss of care of children.

Historically, women experiencing distress and suicidality have been pathologized and trivialized. Despite high rates of suicidality among women, the role of gender and femininity continue to be overlooked in suicide research. I perform a qualitative “sociological autopsy” on 17 coronial cases of young Australian women who communicated intent before their deaths by suicide but were dismissed or ignored. Two tropes of suicidal femininity were identified and will be explored: “drama queens” and “attention seekers.” This paper highlights how gendered assumptions about, and interpretations of, women’s emotions and suicidality can be dangerous, even fatal.

Metabolic variability has emerged as risk factor for adverse outcomes, yet its link to intentional self-harm is unclear. A retrospective cohort study included 2,352,832 adults with ≥3 measurements of waist circumference, fasting glucose, blood pressure, HDL, and triglyceride from 2009–2014. Cox regression hazards models were used to estimate HR after adjusting for potential confounders. Highest variability in waist circumference, DBP, and HDL was associated with increased intentional self-harm (HR 1.32, 95% CI 1.02–1.70; HR 1.42, 95% CI 1.09–1.85; HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.03–1.73). These findings suggest that the highest metabolic variability may represent a potential target for suicide prevention.

Objective: The present PhD project examines consequences of digital, mail-based suicide prevention counseling for help-seekers, using MANO (mail-based, anonymous online counseling) as a case study. Drawing on consequences research, the data is analyzed to reconstruct crisis trajectories, coping and prevention and the meaning of counseling for help-seekers.

Method: The study centers on counseling transcripts, supplemented by an online questionnaire and interviews.

Results: Initial findings suggest that mail-based counseling facilitates specific processing experiences, operating less through direct intervention than through holding, witnessing, and responsivity.

Conclusion: The findings may contribute to the further development of digital counseling for adults experiencing suicidal thoughts.

Responsible media reporting of suicide is a key strategy for suicide prevention, yet little is known about implementation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Between July 2025 and February 2026, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 experts from 14 LMICs, including psychiatrists, psychologists, and other stakeholders involved in media engagement efforts. Discussions covered experiences leading initiatives, barriers and facilitators, evaluation practices, and collaborative strategies. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis identified five themes: engagement efforts, global guidelines and local adaptation, barriers, monitoring and evidence gaps, and future directions. Findings inform context-sensitive strategies and sustainable interventions to improve media reporting of suicide.

Despite its prevalence, research on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) within child protection and juvenile justice systems remains under researched.

This study examined NSSI among 4,918 adolescents in Spain’s child protection and juvenile justice systems (2024–2025), reported by professionals in Berriztu association.

Results showed a 7.2% prevalence (196 incidents), increasing at age 16 with higher frequency in females. Intrapersonal functions—specifically emotion regulation—motivated 80% of cases (skin cutting being the primary method). 90% of incidents occurred without prior communication, reflecting low help-seeking.

These findings highlight the urgent need for early detection and therapeutic strategies focused on emotional regulation within this high-risk population.

Suicide rates in transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) individuals are high. At the time of suicide some still receive gender-affirming medical care (GAMC) which could contribute to suicide prevention e.g. by more systematic risk-assessment and integrated care. The psychosocial autopsy interview with close ones of people who died by suicide can provide insights into risk factors.
We identified themes in medical files of deceased (former) clients of a gender clinic. Besides known risk factors like affective and personality disorders, dissatisfaction with GAMC and gender minority stress emerged. These themes were used to further develop a semi-structured psychosocial autopsy interview in TGD people.

While the IMV model (O'Connor & Kirtley, 2018) acknowledges structural factors in suicidality, a formal mechanism linking environmental constraints to entrapment remains unspecified. We apply viability theory (Aubin, 1991) to model this process. Within this framework, entrapment is modelled as trajectory foreclosure: the progressive contraction of the set of states permitting sustainable life trajectories, under rigid structural constraints (e.g., institutional rigidity, systemic exclusion). As this set contracts, the model predicts approach toward a cusp catastrophe with hysteresis (Bryan & Rudd, 2018; De Beurs et al., 2021), aligning with computational advances in suicide risk modelling (Lu et al., 2026).