The impact of suicide registers and other monitoring systems on suicide prevention: A scoping review

Abstract

Background:

Decreasing suicide mortality has become an overarching goal for societies worldwide. Suicide registers and other monitoring systems are a valuable source of information that can be used for addressing the suicide phenomenon and evaluating preventative interventions.

Aims:

This scoping review provides an overview of literature published in the last decade that has focussed on the operations (functioning) and characteristics of suicide registers and other suicide monitoring systems.

Methods:

Four electronic databases were searched in 2020 for identifying published material from January 2010 to October 2020. The searches were updated in October 2023 to include material from 2020 to date. Grey literature through Google searches and mental health commissions websites and the reference lists of selected documents were also searched.

Results:

Twenty-five articles were included in this review. Nearly half the articles were from the United States, followed by Australia. Nine countries were identified as having used suicide registers or suicide-specific monitoring systems to inform suicide prevention. Monitoring mechanisms varied across the countries examined. No article provided evidence that definitively linked suicide registers or other monitoring systems for suicide with the prevention of suicide or reduction in suicide rates. However, a variety of benefits of suicide monitoring for preventative and public health interventions were identified.

Conclusions:

The number of nations with surveillance systems for suicide prevention is low. Further, there is a lack of consistency in the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of suicide-related information across the countries examined. Efforts to establish high-quality suicide surveillance systems that can be accessed in a timely and easy manner are needed to inform tailored strategies for suicide prevention.