Each year, 60,000 people in Ireland are impacted by suicide. These individuals often experience significant impacts to their mental and physical health that can endure long after the death. These findings highlight the need for a wide range of services and supports, some of which may need to be tailored to best help specific subpopulations. Despite attempts to create tailored supports for those bereaved, there remains significant gaps in the literature surrounding the gender-specific impacts of suicide bereavement. Thus far, studies have been limited by the underrepresentation of male participants. These limitations could lead to an underestimate of suicide-related impacts since men are less likely to engage in help-seeking behaviours regarding their mental health issues. Research is needed to explore the gender-specific characteristics of bereavement to provide insight on how to improve access to supports for men and women impacted by suicide.
The aim of the proposed research project is to explore the gender-specific impacts of suicide bereavement in Ireland. Specifically, the study will investigate the gender-specific characteristics of suicide bereavement, the types of supports accessed, and the experiences of engaging with supports and their associated barriers and facilitators.
The project will be completed as part of a larger independent research study conducted by researchers at the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) and Healing Untold Grief Groups (HUGG). The study yielded the first large-scale national study of adults bereaved or affected by suicide in Ireland, in which 2,413 adults completed the survey between October 2021 and February 2022. The overarching aim of the study to gain insight into the experiences of supports received by people bereaved or affected by suicide and to identify the barriers to engagement following their loss.
