World Suicide Prevention Day was on 10 September 2024 and the month of September was National Suicide Prevention month, leading onto October, which has been designated as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. It therefore felt pertinent to host this event. The event was organised by the South Eastern Area Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse Partnership and saw 100 delegates attend from the Partnership and throughout Northern Ireland.

It was an event that had links to the Partnerships most recent conference in December 2023, which was centred on Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) and this seminar made the links with domestic homicides as a result of domestic abuse and suicide related deaths as a result of domestic abuse. A recent report; Domestic Homicides and Suspected Victim Suicides Year 3 Report (2020 – 2023), published in March 2024 by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in England and Wales, found that between April 2022 and March 2023, there were 93 suspected victim suicides following domestic abuse and 80 intimate partner homicides, which showed the suicide related deaths from Domestic abuse were more. This could be due to increased awareness of suicide related deaths from domestic abuse, as well as how these deaths are recorded. In Northern Ireland, these types of stats relating to suicide are not currently being captured.

Domestic abuse and related homicides continue to be a staggering figure in Northern Ireland, with there having been in excess of 20 Domestic Homicide Reviews initiated since their introduction in 2020. The NPCC report also highlighted the “need for improvement in the approach to suspected victim suicide’s, including recognising the high risk posed by coercive and controlling behaviour, speaking to friends and family to establish any history of domestic abuse, embedding professional curiosity attending unexpected deaths, and prosecuting perpetrators for domestic abuse after a victims suicide.”

Sheila Simons, Chair of the SE D&SVP, opened the seminar stating the seminar is the first of its kind in NI to explore the links between domestic abuse and suicide and to consider hidden homicides where a death may be staged to appear to be a suicide when in fact a homicide had occurred. She also highlighted the importance of creating synergies across the respective Domestic and Sexual Abuse, Mental Health and Suicide prevention Strategies.

Frank Mullane, CEO of Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA), based in England, joined the seminar to speak about AAFDAs findings in relation to the links being made between domestic abuse and suicide related deaths. Frank stated; “Those trapped by domestic abuse can feel so hopeless that they believe the only way out is suicide. 83% confirmed feeling despairing and hopeless – a key determinant for suicidality” Refuge and Warwick University 2018. The Domestic Abuse and suicide prevention worlds don’t speak to each other sufficiently and this is something that we need to address and embed in multi-agency working.

Sonya McMullan, Women’s Aid Federation NI (WAFNI), highlighted the need to implement some key findings from the NPCC report, emphasising the need for an investigative mindset when attending unexpected or sudden deaths and for the Mental Health Strategy to be stronger on domestic abuse, the Suicide Prevention strategy to include domestic abuse and finally to improve public awareness around suicide following domestic abuse.

Caroline King from PAPYRUS NI, a UK based charity for the prevention of young suicide, spoke at the seminar and reiterated the need for Suicide Prevention and Domestic Abuse services to work closer together. She stated that in 2022, the number of suicides recorded in the UK, for all ages and gender, was 6607 and that whilst they couldn’t break this down into what had led to these deaths, they do know that they had received 231 calls relating to domestic abuse, 15% of which were from males, and 286 relating to sexual abuse.

Rhonda Lusty, CEO of the Men’s Advisor Project, MAP, stated that 31% of victims of domestic abuse in NI are male and that to date, 6 out of 20 DHRs initiated have been for males. Whilst the breakdown of deaths related to suicide are not known, 76.8% of suicide deaths in the UK in 2022 happened to men. Rhonda encouraged for a better understanding of males as victims of domestic abuse as well as more professional curiosity when dealing with domestic abuse and suicidality.

Whilst NI is still learning and implementing findings from the DHRs, and this is critical to aiding the prevention of loss of lives in the future, professionals must work more collaboratively and society must become more curious and vocal in addressing domestic abuse and the deaths related to it.

At the time of print, there have been 24 murders of women in NI since 2020; 6 women have been murdered here in 2024 and there have been 6 murders of men. This is a societal issue and we all need to do more to stop it.

Anyone experiencing Domestic Abuse can call the 24-hour Domestic and Sexual Abuse Helpline on 0808 802 1414 or, in an emergency, call the PSNI on 999.