Assessing the characteristics of suicidal ideation and self-harm in a national older adult population attending emergency departments across Ireland: cohort study protocol

IntroductionOlder people (people aged 65 years and older) have high rates of death by suicide, and self-harm is a major risk factor for suicide. While rates of self-harm decrease with age, rates of suicide increase among this age group. The overall aim of this research project is to identify real-life evidence of the characteristics associated with older people who present with self-harm and suicidal ideation to emergency departments in Ireland. In examining the variables associated with self-harm, we may be better able to identify the characteristics of older adults who are at highest risk, including those presenting with high lethality attempts.Methods and analysisOur data are a cohort study of older people in Ireland involving two workstreams. The first will use a 5-year cohort of data from the National Clinical Programme for Self-Harm and Suicide-related Ideation (NCPSHI) which comprises over 70 000 presentations. The second workstream will use a 15-year cohort of electronic patient records from the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH) comprising over 30 491 presentations (900 aged 65 years and older) to collect more detailed information on characteristics of older people presenting with self-harm and suicidal ideation.Ethics and disseminationThis study has received full ethical approval. The Clinical Research Ethics Committee of the MMUH approved the MMUH workstream—Reference number: 1/378/2327 TMR. Ethical approval for the NCPSHI workstream has been granted by the University College Dublin’s Office of Research Ethics.Our findings will be disseminated via peer-review publications and presentations to the scientific community, along with reports for clinicians and policymakers.