There is help for suicidal patients

At the Oireachtas hearings Dr Anthony McCarthy said there is no treatment for suicide.

He says this to refute the research stating that abortion is not a treatment for suicidal women. He is saying that if any person pregnant or otherwise presents to a psychiatrist saying they are suicidal the psychiatrist would say, “Sorry there is no help we can give you, nothing”.

As a psychiatric nurse I find his statement not only wrong and horrifying but insulting to all those who are providing treatment for suicidal people every day. Of course there is treatment for suicidal ideation.

If there is no organic disorder treatable with medication then there are the various talking therapies. Where a person is assessed as being an active threat to themselves they are usually involuntarily admitted for close observation. As a psychiatric nurse, I fail to see why this should not be the case in pregnancy. When there are two lives at risk this would seem to be even more vital.

Usually periods of active suicidal risk are relatively short, so to imply this would be the duration of the entire pregnancy is an over exaggeration.

James Kevin Foley

BSc Nursing

Clondalkin

Dublin 22