In India and Pakistan, researchers are building a trained workforce to study why people deliberately harm themselves and how to prevent it. Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is poorly understood in South Asia, where social, political and economic pressures differ from those in wealthier countries. Research leaders are scarce, and knowledge gaps are serious. Without locally relevant evidence, prevention efforts rely on assumptions that may not hold. The programme will train PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in methods, data analysis and research governance, drawing on experts and people with lived experience. It will produce three core datasets — a household survey, a stakeholder sample and a DSH register — to describe self-harm in local context and inform culturally appropriate community and primary-care responses. Findings will be shared with local communities, international forums and in scientific journals. If successful, the work will strengthen suicide prevention policies, public health messages and health service responses in India and Pakistan. It will also build a flexible, sustainable research workforce capable of continuing this work long after the grant ends.
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Our vision is to bring together a critical mass of international expertise and research excellence to build capability and capacity to conduct research on Deliberate Self Harm (DSH). Our main aim is to produce new and robust information to inform the understanding of the nature of DSH in the context of profound social, political and economic challenges in low and middle-income countries (LMIC) such as India and Pakistan. Research leaders are thinly spread in LMICs, which limits capability building and restricts capacity. There are serious gaps in knowledge about DSH in South Asia. We will meet these challenges in two ways: - firstly by conducting research - secondly by providing training. Research that is collaboratively designed, culturally appropriate and rigorously implemented is one of the best learning tools for building capability. A trained and skilled workforce will continue to build capability and capacity for research. In this partnership, capability building is reciprocal and sustainable. We will share knowledge across the partnership. The programme of work will include training in different areas such as research methods, systematic reviews, data analysis and research governance. PhD students will benefit from the training. We will design some of the training ourselves and bring in other experts to help. We will draw on the expertise of people with lived experience to develop our work programme. A lot of different academic disciplines are involved in the programme. We will work together and share our knowledge to support post doctoral researchers and PhD students who will become the research leaders of the future. Our research programme will develop new evidence and strengthen our understanding of DSH. We will carry out research using quantitative and qualitative methods. We will develop a flexible and trained research workforce in India and Pakistan to carry out fieldwork safely, efficiently and rigorously in challenging environments. We will work closely with Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) partners in Pakistan and India. We will share our findings widely with a range of stakeholders including the local community, international forums and in high impact scientific journals. Our work will inform the development of culturally relevant community and primary-care responses to DSH and suicide in LMIC. Our work will also inform the development of suicide prevention policies, including public health messages and measures. We will document and evaluate the development of the partnership and knowledge exchange processes, and disseminate the findings on conducting this work. Our three core datasets (household survey sample, stakeholder sample, and DSH Register) will help us to examine and describe DSH in local context, explore substantive areas of interest in rich detail, answer a number of research questions and inform policy development and community and health service responses. We will find out more about differences and similarities between India and Pakistan and the differences and similarities between South Asia and other regions of the world.
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