Saving lives by looking for the signs of suicide
It was a very poignant moment for Deputy Helen McEntee when she helped to launch Pieta House’s Rural Suicide Intervention Initiative on Tuesday. Last March, she topped the poll in the Meath East by-election which followed the suicide of her father, junior agriculture minister Shane McEntee. He took his own life just days after his 56th birthday — proof if needed that the high suicide rate in Ireland touches all strata of society, including rural Co Meath, where Mr McEntee was well known in community life, agriculture, and politics. It’s not just Co Meath but all of rural Ireland which has an increasing rate of suicide. Hence the special rural suicide intervention initiative — the biggest of its kind to date — launched in Kells, Co Meath, by Joan Freeman, CEO of the Pieta House suicide and self-harm crisis centre, and Helen McEntee.
Ms Freeman said it is part of the Mind Our Men campaign, which aims to reduce male suicide in Ireland.
