Pieta & DCU Conference. Bringing Light to Darkness:

Dr Eve Griffin is Chief Executive Officer at the National Suicide Research Foundation, Ireland. She has more than 13 years’ experience in the area of suicide prevention. She has authored more than 80 scientific reports and peer-reviewed publications on the topic of self-harm and suicide, and has a strong track record of collaborating with partners representing policy, service provision, clinical practice and lived experience. Her research interests include supporting people bereaved by suicide, surveillance of suicidal behaviour and programme evaluation.

Dr Shari McDaid joined the Mental Health Foundation (UK) in 2019 and leads policy and public affairs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. She was CEO of Ireland's national coalition on mental health, Mental Health Reform, for six years. She has worked in policy roles in the Republic of Ireland since 1998, including at Amnesty International Ireland, the National Disability Authority and Shine: Supporting people affected by mental ill health and has authored/co-authored numerous policy and research papers on mental health issues.

Dr. McDaid received her doctorate in 2008 from the Equality Studies Centre at UCD with a thesis entitled Power, Empowerment and User Involvement in the Public Mental Health Services in Ireland. She is co-editor with Prof. Agnes Higgins of the text Mental Health in Ireland: Policy, practice and law published in 2014 by Gill & MacMillan. Her TedTalk 'From Helper to Leader' describes the experience of being a CEO while living with a mental health condition.

Dr. McDaid has sat on ministerial-appointed advisory committees including the Disability Stakeholders Group, Youth Mental Health Taskforce and the Oversight Group for the review of the national mental health policy A Vision for Change.

Ms Sally Lovejoy was appointed National Nurse Lead for the National Clinical Programme for Self-Harm and Suicide-related Ideation in 2022. As National Nurse Lead she provides nursing leadership and guidance to nursing management in supporting the implementing of the clinical programme for local services. She leads the training and education component of the programme. Sally is a qualified Psychiatric Nurse with over 27 years’ experience and has worked both nationally and internationally. She has held senior roles in nursing management for the past 16 years. Prior to her role in the NCPSHI, she held the position of Assistant Director of Nursing for Limerick Mental Health Services, with responsibility for the nursing leadership and development within multiple community teams and the Liasion Psychiatric service in University Hospital Limerick. She was lead nurse for the implementation of the Nursing Quality Care Metrics and Nurse Prescribing. A keen advocate of education and continuous professional development, her post-graduate qualifications include a Master’s in Psychosocial Interventions, a Higher Diploma in Infection Prevention and Control, Leadership and the RCN Leadership.

Dr Gemma Cox is the Evaluation and Research Manager in the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention. Her background is in psychology and she holds a PhD in Social Policy (from Manchester University). Over the past two decades she has worked in the voluntary, community and statutory sectors as a researcher and evaluator in mental health, addiction and related areas. She has undertaken both quantitative and qualitative research, and has extensive experience in designing, commissioning and undertaking evaluation researcher. Previously she worked as the Evaluation Manager of youngballymun a complex community change initiative, as a postdoctoral researcher in the National Advisory Committee on Drugs, and in the Addiction Research Centre (Trinity College Dublin), as Project Manager on the ROSIE Study (a national drugs treatment outcome study) and as a Research Officer in Merchant Quay Ireland.