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We are surprised to find ourselves now more than halfway into the RaPSS Project. Many of you will have met Sharon and Nicky at the recent PAPYRUS AGM. The meeting gave us a very welcome opportunity to update members of PAPYRUS in person about the progress the project is making. It was very useful to hear members’ thoughts on the Project as well as their responses to some of our early data.
The process of making contact with universities is now drawing to a close as almost all universities in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have now been contacted, initially by post and then by phone. Again, we have been successful in engaging a number of institutions to take part in the research and they have written to families on behalf of the RaPSS’s project. We are continuing to negotiate with a number of institutions and we are hopeful of a positive outcome in further cases. Overall, universities have been supportive of the research and many who have not had any suicides within the time frame of the project are keen to ensure that they are contacted again at the end of the project so that they can be invited to attend the events we will be organising to publicise the research findings.
The continuing sensitivities of the research, both in contacting families together with concerns over the issues of suicide at university, mean that we now anticipate studying between 20 and 30 cases in depth. We have decided now to expand our data by carrying out a number of Innovative Practice interviews with university staff. This will allow us to explore their existing policies and procedures and the ways in which they currently prepare for and respond to the problems experienced by students as well as how they deal with the aftermath of the death of a student. It will also offer those who have not able to participate in the main study an opportunity to contribute to the findings and final report.
We have also continued to raise awareness of the project by presenting to a wide range of professionals including BAHSHE who represent GPs at university health centres and AMOSSHE, the professional body for student |
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support service managers. We have also given the study’s first academic paper at a CRUSE International Bereavement Conference in London, presenting a paper reviewing international arrangements for responding to death of students by suicide. Contact with professionals and other researchers at these events has proved extremely useful in providing an additional perspective to the research and developing the team’s awareness of current initiatives and trends.
Added perspective
In addition, we have recently succeeded in forging close links with the NUS (National Union of Students) and Sharon attended a training event with their student welfare officers. This was extremely valuable as it offered a chance for discussion with many of the representatives who attended from almost every university in Great Britain. We are hoping to interview a number of them at the end of the academic year about their experiences of student suicide throughout their year in office. These interviews will also provide an added perspective to our research.
We are very encouraged by the quality of the data obtained to date and some very interesting early findings are emerging which we plan to share with you once we have completed our schedule of interviews. We believe that the final report will be unique in highlighting the nature of the problems |
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Welcome to the fifth update on the RaPSS project |
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experienced by young people as they move through university. Our priority is to talk to as many parents and students as possible with a view to developing our evidence base.
As many of you are aware, one of the ways in which we have been doing this is by speaking to parents whose child died while studying at university before May 2000 (the main time frame of the study). A full case study is not possible in relation to those young people who died before this time because of the difficulties in locating friends and staff involved; however, we are still able to gain valuable insights into student suicide by speaking to these parents. Many PAPYRUS members have already contributed directly to this part of the research by completing interviews with Jo or Sharon about their experiences.
We would now ask that you consider whether you know any one who is not a PAPYRUS member but who lost their child while they were a university student and who might be prepared to talk to the research team (bearing in mind that we also speak to parents whose child had just left or was just about to start university). Making an initial contact with them or with the team about this does not oblige you or them to take part, so if you have any questions about what it would involve then get in touch by letter, email or phone to either Jo or Sharon.
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There will be another update of the progress of the research in the next issue of the newsletter. If you have any views or questions about the research in the meantime then please contact Sharon@rapss.org.uk (01772 893407) or Jo@rapss.org.uk phone (01482 463354) who would very much like to hear about anyone else who you think might be willing to be interviewed..
Sharon Mallon RaPSS Researcher and Susan Hilton RaPSS Administrator |
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Taking part |