Research on Link between Mental Health and Variables such as Gender, Socio-economic Status and Race

Ms Carrie Tan asked the Minister for Health whether the Ministry will put more funding into research on mental health and suicide, particularly to understand how factors related to gender, socio-economic group, race, education, marital status and income level, intersect to present the level of suicide risks in individuals.

Mr Ong Ye Kung: Mental health and well-being, including studies exploring suicide and suicide-related behaviours and risk factors, is an area of interest amongst researchers.

For instance, the Singapore Mental Health Study (SMHS) examined the prevalence of common mental disorders and suicidal ideation among the adult population in Singapore. The Inter-Agency Research Workgroup for Youth Suicides led by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) brought together various public agencies 1 to study the risk and protective factors of suicides and suicidal behaviours in the young.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has also been supporting research in this area through various competitive research grant schemes under the national Research, Innovation and Enterprise (RIE) Plans. In the current RIE2025 Plan, MOH has identified mental health as one of the priority areas for research. MOH also launched the $90 million Population Health Research Grant in July 2022, of which mental health is one of the priority research themes.

Note(s) to Question No(s) 37:

1 The inter-agency research workgroup comprised representatives from Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), Ministry of Defence (MINDEF), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), Health Promotion Board (HPB), Health Sciences Authority (HSA), IMH, National University Hospital (NUH) and the State Courts.