Conference Agenda

Social determinants and inequalities are recognised as key drivers of youth self-harm and suicide, yet little is known about how the public conceptualises these causes. News coverage reflects prominent narratives and public opinion, and provides insight into which evidence-based determinants are under-represented in public discourse. The study therefore aimed to capture the nature and occurrence of causal representations for youth self-harm/suicide in popular Irish news media. A search string containing the keywords “youth” and “suicide” or “self-harm” was developed and applied to a news media database (Nexis). Search hits were filtered to online and print news articles between 2023 and 2025, from eight of Ireland’s most popular news sources. Content analysis was applied to every 4^th article (n=918). The World Health Organisation’s “Conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health” (2010) was used as an initial coding framework, with additional subcodes generated inductively. Ten categories of causal explanations were identified, which were further grouped into three themes: psychosocial factors (present in 71% of included articles), structural factors (42%), and behaviours (28%). Articles were more commonly in reference to suicide (72%) than self-harm (14%) or both self-harm and suicide (14%). Causal explanations were most likely to originate from personal lived experience (20%), followed by non-expert professionals (17%), expert professionals (14%), research (13%), parents and loved ones (12%), unattributed (12%), and other sources (10%). Lastly, the analysis identified that where explanations were in reference to a specific person, this person was more likely to be female (62%) than male (38%). The majority of articles did not describe other identity characteristics such as ethnicity. The findings highlight the importance of greater public awareness of macro-level determinants and inequalities in youth self-harm and suicide. Further public engagement strategies are necessary to harness public and political support for effective intervention and stigma reduction.

Suicide is a common theme in film, and its accurate and safe portrayal is a public health priority. However, little is known about how film crews experience the development and production of suicide-related films. In a collaboration between researchers and a film team, this study aimed to explore how a film crew developing a short film about suicide formed their script ideas, what they viewed as important, and how the work influenced their mental health.

We conducted ten semi-structured interviews with all key members of a film team after the completion of their short film on suicide. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. For analysis we used the documentary method.

The collaboration with the research team allowed the film team a responsible approach without concerns about box-office success. While some film team members reported a negative impact of the film production on their mental health (e.g., depressive mood, brooding, flashbacks), others experienced it positively, or described no impact at all. A higher degree of (creative) involvement in the project was perceived as to being more strongly related to negative effects. Participants reported several resilience factors that helped them cope with the task to produce a suicide film. Also work experience with the topic of suicide was considered helpful. Recommendations for other film teams working on the topic of suicide were developed for each of the phases of the development and production cycle.

Media recommendations for portraying suicide in entertainment media might help to inform filmmakers about responsible portrayals of suicide in films. These guidelines should include recommendations for filmmakers and their teams to take care for themselves and consider supervision to reduce the burden from working with difficult and sensitive content related to suicide.

This work was funded in whole by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [Grant-DOI: 10.55776/P36769].

Introduction: International media guidelines promote responsible reporting of suicide, recognizing that sensationalist coverage can increase population-level suicide risk. Research on guideline adherence has primarily focused on male celebrity suicides, often highlighting poor-quality reporting. Less is known about media coverage of female celebrity suicides. We aimed to investigate the quality of reporting following the suicide of Caroline Flack, a British television celebrity, with a focus on both online and print media.

Method: We evaluated reporting in the United Kingdom on Caroline Flack’s suicide over the 14 months following her death using PRINTQUAL for print content and PRINTQUAL-web for online content. We coded articles for features of poor-quality and good-quality reporting, and used paired t-tests to compare negative/poor-quality and positive/good-quality subscale scores between print and online media.

Results: We identified 467 eligible news articles, primarily online (n=342) versus print (n=235), with 41% published in the week following her death and 10% around the inquest. Negative/poor-quality subscale scores were significantly higher for online content (denoting their poorer quality) than print content (t(165.95)=5.65, p<0.001). Positive/good-quality subscale scores were also significantly higher for online content (denoting their better quality) than print content (t(236.46)=8.15, p<0.001), for example with online articles more frequently including support sources.

Conclusions: When compared to print reporting of suicide, online reporting demonstrated both poorer guideline adherence for potentially harmful content and better guideline adherence for inclusionfor inclusion of positive reporting elements. These findings highlight the need for targeted training for both online and print journalists to improve awareness of media guidelines, enhance adherence, and mitigate the negative impact of suicide reporting on vulnerable audiences.

Introduction: Means restriction is difficult to implement for hanging, the leading suicide method in many countries, suggesting a role for limiting the cognitive availability (CA) of suicide. There is a lack of interventions explicitly targeting the CA of suicide, operating upstream of (and complementing) physical restriction. We designed and evaluated proof-of-concept and acceptability of a video-based intervention intended to reduce the CA of suicide (specifically hanging) among middle-aged men.

Methods: We co-designed a 62 second video to reduce the CA of hanging, and co-developed CA measures, with input from experts by experience and relevant professionals. In an experimental study we captured measures of CA of suicide and CA of hanging before and after watching the video and at one week follow-up, compared using linear mixed-effects models. We also collected measures of acceptability (0-10 scale).

Results: Between April and July 2025, 107 participants completed pre-and post-video measures, with 101 providing one-week follow-up data, and no risk events. A high proportion of participants reported zero baseline for CA of hanging, introducing a floor effect. We found no effect of the intervention on CA of hanging (F(2,206.71)=0.27; p=.765) but a significant effect on CA of suicide (F(2,206.44)=10.14; p<.001), with scores significantly lower immediately after watching the video and at one-week follow-up. Acceptability was high: mean helpfulness 6.21 (SD=2.46), mean suitability 8.04 (SD=2.15).

Conclusions: These findings suggest great potential for targeted media messaging to reduce suicides. Given the floor effect in this sample, we had limited scope to test the video’s influence on the CA of hanging. Further research is needed in samples at higher risk of suicide in order to establish whether the intervention might reduce the CA of suicide and of specific suicide methods. There is also scope to adapt this intervention for other socio-demographic and ethnic groups.

Introduction: Means restriction is difficult to implement for hanging, the leading suicide method in many countries. Reducing the cognitive availability (CA) of suicide offers potential to operate upstream of (and complement) physical restriction but involves ethical challenges in balancing intended impact with safety and acceptability. We investigated the acceptability, relatability, perceived safety, and perceived impact of a one-minute video-based intervention that we had designed to reduce the CA of suicide (specifically hanging) among middle-aged men.

Methods: We elicited views on the acceptability, relatability, perceived safety, and perceived impact of this video by showing it, in individual online sessions, to 107 men aged 40–65 years, recruited from the general population. We conducted individual semi-structured interviews immediately after the video and collected one-week follow-up free-text responses eliciting any further views. We analysed data using the Framework Method.

Results: Participants generally perceived the intervention as acceptable and safe, despite recognising the inherent discomfort associated with explicit discussion of suicide and hanging. Relatability varied according to perceived authenticity, age and gender alignment, with the intervention viewed as most resonant for middle-aged men but potentially less so for younger audiences. While many participants reported no explicit change in their views on suicide or hanging, others described meaningful cognitive shifts. These included: greater aversion to suicide, heightened awareness of the physical and psychological realities of hanging, and reduced beliefs in the method as quick, painless, or reliably lethal. Secondary impacts reported included: normalisation of male vulnerability, increased openness to discussing distress, greater perceived legitimacy of help-seeking, and engagement with recovery-oriented messages.

Conclusion: This video-based intervention targeting the CA of suicide was considered acceptable and safe for middle-aged men with the potential for cognitive shifts reducing suicide risk. Further development of such approaches is indicated, including for other sociodemographic groups, complementing physical means restriction strategies