A new report has found that young people with the highest risk for repeated self-harm were 15 to 19-year-old females and males in their early 20s, resulting in calls for risk assessments for anyone presenting at emergency departments with self-harm injuries.

Ground-breaking research by the Cork-based National Suicide Research Foundation into deaths during the recession has found that the “extreme measures” by the Government during the recession contributed to the rise in suicides among vulnerable people.

Five years after a loved one takes their own life, more than a third of family members still feel depressed and anxious about their loss, while a quarter admit to having suicidal thoughts, according to new research.

A website for parents aims to help them become web savvy at a time of rising cyberbullying and new online challenges faced by their children.

Suicide rates among men is one of the most prominent health issues Irish society faces today and one young journalist is determined to raise awareness.

Irish research influenced key recommendations in the World Health Organisation’s first global report calling for more suicide prevention strategies.

Teenage boys in counties Cork and Kerry are six times more likely to die by suicide than teenage girls.

Many lives will be lost unnecessarily to suicide and many others will self-harm due to the Government’s slow reaction to addressing the problem of alcohol abuse in Ireland, a leading suicide expert has warned.

Up to 30 young people treated every week at University Hospital Limerick have attempted suicide, according to a hospital source.

Within a three-month period, a small area of West Cork experienced a suicide every week.

Almost 9,500 people were treated in hospital last year after attempting to take their own lives.

Over two thirds of people who took their own lives in the past three years knew a family member or friend who had taken their own life or tried to.

Access to certain locations where suicides have taken place may be limited under proposals being formulated by the National Suicide Research Foundation and other interested groups.

A staggering rise in the number of Irish men taking their own lives is clearly linked to the recession, according to a leading expert on mental health.

More than 80% of people who died by suicide had been in contact with a GP or mental health service in the year prior to their death, a study has found.

The findings of the latest National Suicide Research Foundation study highlight the complexity of the tragedy that is suicide.

GARDAÍ in Cork have referred a complaint to the Irish Medical Council concerning the over-prescribing of powerful tranquillising drugs by a doctor in the city.

MORE than 450 people have each been admitted to hospital at least 10 times due to deliberate self-harm in a seven-year period, a conference on mental health heard yesterday.

A SUICIDE ‘cluster’ involving 18 people — mainly adolescent and young men — has been identified over an 18-month period in a small area in Cork.

Eighteen young people, mainly adolescent young men, have committed suicide in one area of Cork in an 18-month period.

I WOULD like to comment on the important front page article (January 28) that highlighted the increase in suicides among elderly people based on observations from coroners in Offaly and Kerry.

THE existing state support system for people who self-harm needs to be overhauled as it is too focused on crisis intervention and only allows access to help after they have been referred by non-specialised GPs.

A LEADING suicide research group is investigating the possibility that national suicide rates could be far higher than officially recorded as some Coroners’ Court judgments deliberately re-classify the tragedies.

THE author of the first Irish study into the long-term effects of institutional child abuse on survivors has warned that the repercussions of the scandal could be felt for several generations to come.

YOUR front page report (December 12) headlined ‘Two people take own lives each day’, both from my perspective and that of the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF), contained too much speculation and did not include any systematic evidence for the statement that “up to 700 people died by suicide across the State last year”.

TOP sports stars will tee off tomorrow to raise funds to help finish a crucial two-year study on suicide prevention.

WHEN suicide prevention experts go out of their way to condemn Government research funding as a “national disgrace” it is time to take notice.

ALMOST 3,000 people under the age of 25 were treated in hospital last year for attempted suicide or deliberate self-harm.

Providing specialist teams at Accident and Emergency departments to treat self-harm patients is a very commendable idea and, while it only broaches part of the problem, it is an initiative worth pursuing.

AROUND 50% more people attempted suicide in Limerick city, per capita, than in either Cork or Waterford last year, according to the National Suicide Research Foundation.

UP to 12,000 Irish people receive hospital treatment after attempting suicide each year, a Government-funded report shows.