Ms Suzanne Costello:

I thank Senator Black. In a moment I will hand over to my clinical colleagues, who will have a view on that. The institute currently is not doing any work on mental health because it has not been on our recent programme as agreed with both Departments. However, that does not mean that it is not a huge priority. In the past the institute has done some work on suicide on the island of Ireland. I am sure the Senator is aware of the great work Professor Ella Arensman has done for many years looking at suicide and self-harm in both jurisdictions and the commonalities between them. While our programme of work does not currently include anything on this, it is an enormous issue. Of course, it falls under the heading of the social determinants of health because with suicide and self-harm, although there is a clinical response in terms of treatment, there are all the social pressures. Those are the social determinants we deal with every day - how people are living, working and raising their children. The pressures they come under every day have a huge and undeniable impact on mental health. While we are not doing anything specific on mental health in this particular programme of work, we are very aware of it all the time.

I do not know whether Dr. Mack or Dr. Kavanagh would like to add to that.