The HSE has today (12 December 2025) published a summary of a CES evaluation of the implementation and intermediate outcomes of ‘Connecting for Life’ - Ireland’s National Strategy to Reduce Suicide.
Connecting for Life (CfL) was Ireland’s national strategy to reduce suicide from 2015 to 2020 (Department of Health, 2015) and extended to 2024 following an Interim Strategy Review in 2018 (National Office for Suicide Prevention, 2019).
The strategy’s vision is for “an Ireland where fewer lives are lost through suicide and where communities and individuals are empowered to improve their mental health and wellbeing”.
CfL sets out two ambitious primary outcomes:
1. Reduced suicide rate in the whole population and amongst specified priority groups.
2. Reduced rate of presentations of self-harm in the whole population and amongst specified priority groups.
The objectives of the evaluation were to understand the implementation of CfL and the extent to which it is achieving its intermediate outcomes, to inform future resourcing of suicide prevention policies and activities.
The CES team delivered a mixed-methods evaluation and produced a set of recommendations around governance, scope, funding and processes.
The full CES report can be found here
