Completed Projects
Title of research
Suicide among public safety personnel compared to the general population in Ontario: A case-control study
Summary
The lack of information on Public Safety Personnel (PSP) deaths by suicide was highlighted by the First Responder Mental Health Network Collaboration. The goal of this study is to collect data from the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
From this data, the research team will first assess differences in health service use between PSP who die by suicide and the general population who die by suicide. The team will review the two years preceding the subject’s deaths. They will then evaluate the differences in the characteristics of PSP suicides compared to the general population. Lastly, they will assess the agreement between the information from the Office of the Chief Coroner and ICES.
This comparison will provide new data about what, if any, differences exist between PSP suicides and those in the general population. This information can be used to inform treatment and training for PSP.
When to expect results
Current results will be shared at the end-of-grant workshop
Research team
Dr. Simon Hatcher, Vice-chair research, Department of Psychiatry at University of Ottawa; Dr. R. Nicholas Carlton, Professor of psychology at the University of Regina; Dr. Ian Colman, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine at the University of Ottawa; Dr. Alexandra Heber, Chief Psychiatrist at Veterans Affairs Canada; Dr. Valerie Testa, Senior clinical research associate at Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.