Invited Speakers
Dr Yongyud Wongpiromsarn
Human Consciousness and Suicidal Idea
Dr Yongyud Wongpiromsarn is an advisor at the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, a member of National Committees on Children, Family, Early Childhood Development, Mental Health and a member of committees of Foundation for Child Development, Foundation of Media for Youth Foundation for Learning and Research Institute.
Professor Lakshmi Vijayakumar
Implementation of a comprehensive surveillance system for recording suicides and attempted suicides in rural India
Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar is the founder of SNEHA, an NGO in Chennai for the prevention of suicide. She is the Head, Department of Psychiatry, Voluntary Health Services, Adyar, Chennai.
Dr Prakarn Thomyangkoon
Postvention in Thailand
Assistant Professor Prakarn Thomyangkoon is a lecturer at College of Medicine, Rangsit University, an executive committee of the Psychiatric Association of Thailand, and a National representative of Thailand for the International Association for Suicide Prevention for the term 2005 – 2027.
Professor Rakhi Dandona
Improving quality of administrative data for suicide and self-harm in LMICs
Dr Rakhi Dandona is Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India and Professor of Health Metrics Sciences at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington, Seattle, USA.
Assistant Professor Yunyu Xiao
Social determinant factors on suicide risk
Dr Yunyu Xiao is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Health Informatics Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College (WCMC). She is a 2023 Google Research Scholar Recipient and NIMHD 2022 Health Disparities Research Institute Scholar.
Dr Pongkasem Khaimook
National Strategy for Suicide Prevention in Thailand
Dr Pongkasem Khaimook is a Neurologist and Director General of the Department of Mental Health, Ministry of Public Health. He is a lecturer in the field of headache, dementia and epilepsy, and a key man of National Suicide Prevention Strategy in Thailand.
Dr Lynne Russell
Māori suicide
Dr Lynne Russell (Ngāti Kahungunu, Rangitāne, Kāi Tahu, Ngāti Porou) is a proud grandmother and Mum. Since 2005 she has worked as an academic researcher with Te Hikuwai Rangahau Hauora (Health Services Research Centre) at Te Herenga Waka–Victoria University of Wellington. For the last 15 years Lynne has used her lived experience of suicide loss to focus her research on Indigenous suicide prevention and postvention.
Dr Clinton Schultz
Social Emotional Wellbeing Approaches to First Nations Suicide Prevention
Dr Clinton Schultz, is a Gamilaraay man and a licensed psychologist. His work delves deeply into concepts of lore, culture, and the broad spectrum of health and wellness, emphasizing the well-being of health and community service workers. His PhD, entitled “Winanga-li-gu, Guwaa-li-gu, Maruma-li-gu: Holistic Wellbeing for Aboriginal Health and Community Workers,” garnered Griffith University’s Chancellor’s award for academic excellence in 2019. He plays a pivotal role as Director of First Nations Strategy and Partnerships at the Blackdog Institute and co-founded Sobah Beverages. Dr Schultz has published and presented extensively on the concept of social and emotional wellbeing from an Aboriginal perspective.
Professor Paul Yip
Online Suicide Prevention Program: Challenges and Opportunities
Professor Paul Yip is the Director of the Centre Suicide Research and Prevention and a chair professor of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, He served as a vice president of International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP).
Dr Sandersan Onie
The Role of Religion and Cultural Beliefs in Suicide Prevention
Dr Sandersan Onie is a researcher at the Black Dog Institute, in Sydney, Australia, and the Founding President of the Indonesian Association for Suicide Prevention. He helps countries develop comprehensive, systematic, and relevant national suicide prevention strategies, and uses digital approaches to reach those in crisis.
Dr KristiAnna Whitman
Community based suicide prevention in a culturally diverse Pacific Island setting
Dr KristiAnna Santos Whitman is a daughter of Guam, and proud mother of one. Dr KristiAnna Santos Whitman is a licensed professional counselor who manages Guam’s SAMHSA-GLS grant, Focus on Life, administered by the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center.
Trakarn Chensy
Dealing with Grief Under the Obstacle of Asian Face Culture
Trakarn Chensy has been with the Samaritans of Thailand, a Bangkok-based suicide prevention hotline-service provider, since 1997. He started as a volunteer but later served as the organization’s Director for four terms. He’s currently serving his third term as the Chairman of the Samaritans of Thailand.
Dr Piumee Bandara
Working with policymakers for suicide prevention
Dr Piumee Bandara is a Consultant on suicide prevention within the Department of Mental Health and Substance Use, World Health Organization and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.
Dr Epaggelia Efu
A Pacific Islander Perspective
Professor Matthew Spittal
Collecting and using real-time suicide surveillance data: challenges and opportunities
Matthew Spittal is a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Melbourne, leading the Mental Health Epidemiology Unit.
Yasuyuki Shimizu
Systematic suicide prevention: policy, intervention, and community in Japan
Yasuyuki Shimizu is the Representative Director of the Japan Suicide Countermeasures Promotion Center and the Representative Director of LIFELINK, a Suicide Prevention Action Network in Japan.
Professor Andrew Page
The National Suicide Prevention Trial and place based interventions in Australia: methods, findings, and policy implications
Professor Andrew Page is Chair of Epidemiology in the Translational Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University. Andrew is also the Director of the Master of Epidemiology program in the School of Medicine.
Dr Tae-Yeon Hwang
National suicide prevention program in Korea
Dr Tae-Yeon Hwang is the President of the Korea Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He has worked as the Director of WHO Collaborating Center for Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Community Mental Health from 2003 to 2016 at Yongin Mental Hospital in Gyeonggi Province of Korea.
Associate Professor Fiona Shand
How complex concerted suicide prevention interventions interact: Lifespan Trials
Associate Professor Fiona Shand is a Senior Research Fellow at the Black Dog Institute and is part of the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Suicide Prevention.
Professor Mohsen Rezaeian
Socio-political factors and suicide in EMRO
Professor Mohsen Rezaeian works within the Epidemiology Department of Rafsanjan Health School in Iran. He is one of the founders of Iranian Scientific Society for Suicide Prevention (ISSSP) and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Suicide Prevention (JSP).
Dr Liang Zhou
Suicide prevention in China
Dr Liang Zhou is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Affiliated Brain Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, China. He is the vice dean of School of Mental Health at Guangzhou Medical University, and the chief of Guangzhou Crisis Intervention Centre.
Dr Sarah Fortune
The use of big data to understand suicide and how we use it to address inequity
Dr Sarah Fortune is the Director of Population Mental Health in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. Sarah is also a registered Clinical Psychologist.
Dr Basudev Karki
The development of a national suicide prevention plan for Nepal
Dr Basudev Karki is a senior consultant psychiatrist working in the Government of Nepal. Currently working as a Coordinator on the National Suicide Prevention Helpline in Nepal.
Professor Shu-Sen Chang
Geographic and socioeconomic inequalities in suicide
Professor Shu-Sen Chang is a suicide prevention and mental health researcher based at the College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taiwan.
Dr Wendy So
Suicide prevention in HongKong schools
Dr. Wendy So is working at The HKJC Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention at the University of Hong Kong as a Research Officer. She evaluates mental health projects, conducting suicide related research and overseeing school projects at the centre.
Dr Soumitra Pathare
Responding to Media Reporting of Suicide in India: Barriers and Successes
Dr Soumitra Pathare is a psychiatrist and the Director of the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy (CMHLP), Indian Law Society, Pune, India. His primary interests are in the areas of mental health policy, scaling up mental health services, suicide prevention, and rights-based care & legislation.