Connection & hope: International Association of Suicide Prevention Conference 2023

I last attended an International Association of Suicide Prevention conference in 2005 when it was held in Durban.

Then, I headed off then with poster presentation in bag and no concept of what I was going to.

Getting there was a challenge, my flight from Edinburgh to Heathrow was delayed, I missed my connecting flight to Johannesburg meaning I had hours to wait for the next one, arrived in Johannesburg to be met by the gun storage which scared the life out of me.

I finally arrived in Durban hours later than planned and with no luggage…so also no poster!

That trip was eventful, although my clothes turned up after a few days, I was left standing at a blank space where my poster should have been speaking to people about the work we were doing in Scotland.

They were keen to hear and I built connections I still stay in contact with now. By the end of my week, after having a machete pulled on our taxi, I had decided Durban was not a city I was in any rush to return to.

Fast forward 18 years and this year’s IASP conference was held in the beautiful town of Piran in Slovenia.

The journey there and back is not easy; Edinburgh to Frankfurt to Trieste by plane and then minibus to Piran meant I was in four different countries in one day.

The town itself is small and perfectly formed on a peninsula out into the Adriatic Sea with Croatia visible to one side and Italy to the other, and the sunsets were just spectacular.

The conference brings together academics, people working on the frontline, policy makers and people with lived and living experience.

My key aim was to ensure I came back to Scotland with as much information about as many different topics which would help deliver Creating Hope Together as possible. This was no easy task!

The range of presentations, symposiums, panel discussions and plenary sessions was a bit overwhelming at first glance. It was difficult to know where to start to make sure I got the best out of the event. They had a great app to help navigate the sessions which provided details of speakers, abstracts and venues.

I spent time on the way to Piran, going through the app and highlighting the things I wanted to do which then created an individual agenda for me…I love when there is something that helps me be more organised!

This meant I could plan attending sessions on a number of different topics to gather a good cross section of information. I heard about research and practice in children and young people, postvention, emergency departments, older adults, inequalities, media and social media, educational programmes and many more. I’m pulling together the information I gathered and plan to share this widely across Suicide Prevention Scotland.

I didn’t want to risk losing my poster again so had been accepted to deliver an oral presentation. This session was held on Wednesday afternoon and was entitled National Strategies for Suicide Prevention. There was a mixed bag of presentations, but mine was the only one about a national strategy.

Others covered specific areas of work including; training of undergraduate media students in India, the challenges of reducing access to means in USA particularly firearms, a collaborative approach between Australia and Brunei to deliver a culturally sensitive mental health literacy programme, the impact of increasing investment in research in Australia and the impact of a National Suicide Prevention Trial pilot in Australia.

There were positive comments from the room about the approach we had taken to developing our strategy in Scotland and the focus on outcomes and inequalities was seen as really positive.

Later that day I attended another session chaired by Professor Steve Platt, who co-chairs our Academy Advisory Group. At this event, the Scottish strategy was described by Professor Jane Pirkis as a good example of a national strategy which aims to address the upstream, wider socio-economic factors associated with suicide through a whole of government and society approach and through the development of collaborations.

I remember some time ago listening to Steve speak at another event. He said it was really important that we created the right conditions for new, young researchers to come into the field of suicide prevention.

I was blown away by the number of young researchers who presented their work at IASP 23. The breadth of work they are leading and involved in is phenomenal. Among them were those representing the work they are undertaking in Scotland. The posters they had created to describe their work demonstrated the amazing talent we have working in Scotland.

It’s not just the presentations which are helpful at these events, more importantly, it’s the connections you can make with others from across the world and what you can learn from the work they are doing and testing.

There were over 700 delegates at the event including over 100 from Australia alone but it felt like every part of the globe was represented.

Since taking on the National Delivery Lead role, I have had the pleasure of meeting lots of people. Being in Piran didn’t change that and it was great to be able to link with people from home and abroad.

Some highlights were connecting with Chris and Sam from Man on Inverclyde, hearing about the work they do daily to support suicide prevention in their community. Ged from Papyrus who was reflecting on the balance between academic and practice input at the conference. Jo from Hull University and Cathy from Leeds University who between them undertake research and learn from practice across social media, self harm and postvention.

The Livingworks team covering UK, Canada and Australia, who not only shared learning from delivering learning programmes across different countries but also delivered safeTALK to delegates.

While it might seem odd to travel hundreds of miles across Europe to do this, it was also a real pleasure to spend time with those from Scotland who are working in different areas of research that I don’t always get a chance to hear about.

Overall, the conference was a great experience, there was so much rich learning for me and it sparked lots of ideas for things we could explore in Scotland.

There were two key messages I took away, the first is connection is vital, anyone can help and the second was one of hope. The conference ended by displaying a word cloud that delegates had contributed to, its easy to see I wasn’t the only one who left filled with hope.

If you are feeling suicidal or you are concerned for someone else please contact

• Samaritans — call 116 123 any time
• Breathing Space — call 0800 83 85 87
• NHS 24 mental health hub — call 111

You can also hear from people who have been there, who understand what it feels like and who have come out the other side on NHS Inform.