James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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562. To ask the Minister for Health the status of the development of a national research and evaluation plan to support the monitoring and evaluation of Connecting for Life. [37358/16]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Connecting for Life, Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide 2015-2020, is currently being implemented, and as such is subject to continuous monitoring and evaluation of existing actions. The National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) has responsibility for monitoring and reporting systems to support the delivery of the Strategy.

To date, activity has been carried out on all of these actions as part of the implementation of Connecting for Life. NOSP is currently in the process of establishing a research team within the office, consisting of a Research Manager, Data Officer and Research Assistant. This is proposed to be fully functional in early 2017. A core part of this team’s work will be the development of a national research and evaluation plan to support the monitoring and evaluation of Connecting for Life.

Actions in Connecting for Life that relate to this include the following:

- Conduct proportionate evaluations of all major activities conducted under the aegis of Connecting for Life; disseminate findings and share lessons learned with programme practitioners and partners.

- Develop capacity for observation and information gathering on those at risk or vulnerable to suicide and self-harm.

- Collate and report on incidences of suicide through current and expanded health surveillance systems over the life of Connecting for Life.

- Collect, analyse and disseminate high quality data on suicide and self-harm and ensure adequate access to, and understanding of, the data among those working in suicide prevention across all sectors.

- Support research on risk and protective factors for suicidal behaviour in groups with an increased risk (or potential increased risk) of suicide behaviour.

- Support the co-ordination and streamlining of research completed by third-level institutions.

- Develop working partnerships with centres of expertise to support evaluation and research, knowledge transfer and implementation support between researchers, policy makers and service providers.

- Evaluate innovative approaches to suicide prevention including online service provision and targeted approaches for appropriate priority groups.

In addition, the Justice and Health sectors will engage with the Coroners, Garda Síochána, NOSP, CSO and research bodies in relation to deaths in custody, and recording of deaths by suicide and open verdicts, to further refine the basis of suicide statistics.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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563. To ask the Minister for Health the key provisions of the national education and training plan to support the delivery of Connecting for Life. [37359/16]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Connecting for Life, Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide 2015-2020, is currently being implemented. The Strategy provides an implementation and evaluation structure to achieve each of the goals it proposes, with defined actions and a lead agency and key partners in place for each individual objective. The National Office for Suicide Prevention has responsibility for coordination of the national education and training plan.

The key provisions of this plan are as follows:

- Develop a Training Plan for community based training.

- Deliver awareness training programmes prioritising professionals and volunteers across community-based organisations.

- Provide community-based organisations with guidelines, protocols and training on suicide prevention.

- Provide and sustain training to health and social care professionals.

- Provide support and resources for the implementation of the Department’s curriculum and programmes in the promotion of wellbeing in the school community.

- Deliver training in suicide prevention to staff involved in the delivery of relevant services.

- Support professional regulatory bodies to develop and deliver accredited competency based education on suicide prevention to health professionals.

- Recommend the incorporation of suicide prevention training as part of undergraduate curriculum of the relevant professions.

The Suicide Prevention Education and Training plan will be finalised in December 2016.