SASHI project update

The COVID-19 pandemic has been disruptive across all sectors, not least in the field of international research. The SASHI project has not been immune to these challenges, but work has continued. 

The impact of coronavirus on mental health has been and continues to be far-reaching. Many of us have spent much of this year at home, unable to go about our normal lives. SASHI team members across all partner countries – unable to meet in person nor to access research sites – have had to adapt to this disruption. 

The shift to new ways of working has provided an opportunity to pause and to reconfigure the SASHI project so that it can meet its aims in this new and uncertain research context. We have now been able to begin the implementation of our revised programme of work:

• The SASHI Self Harm Register (SHR) has been finalised and is now being implemented in Mysore, India. Over the past 18 months we have developed an increased focus on financial strain, and the pandemic has given this a particular relevance. In the weeks and months that follow, a final iteration of the SHR will be rolled out in hospitals and medical research institutes in India and Pakistan, while small-scale qualitative work on financial strain will be undertaken.

• Our work in burns, led by Dr Emily Bebbington, will generate a separate SHR which will be compatible with the main SASHI data sets

• Knowledge, Attitudes and Wellbeing Survey mixed methods work stream (with a greater emphasis on qualitative data) continues to develop. A discrete strand on media representations has been created in response to the pandemic and work is in progress.

• Stakeholder interviews have commenced in India with staff in nursing, emergency medicine, plastic surgery and medico-legal officers, journalists, police officers, religious & faith leaders, and community workers

• Capacity strengthening work continues with research and professional services staff. Supporting PhD candidates is a particular focus.

Further updates will appear here as the reconfigured work plan develops.

Publication date: 30 September 2020