Harney vows to tackle spiralling suicide rate

TÁNAISTE and Health Minister Mary Harney last night promised action to reduce Ireland's spiralling suicide rate after criticism the Government was not taking the crisis seriously enough.

Launching a 10-year strategy, Ms Harney said a groundbreaking awareness campaign using texting and the internet would be created to try and reach vulnerable youngsters.

A new office of suicide prevention would co-ordinate implementation of the 26-point plan which also aims to put specially trained crisis nurses in 90% of A&E units by year's end, up from 50% at present. Fine Gael welcomed the broad thrust of initiative, but criticised the lack of funding details for the programme and said the extra €500,000 pledged by the Tánaiste for the rest of this year was "derisory".

Ireland has the fifth highest youth suicide rate in the 25-member EU and moves up to second worst behind Finland when post-communist countries are excluded. Each year 494 people in the Republic take their own lives and surveys show that 78% of youngsters know of someone who has committed suicide.

"The fact is, suicide happens too often because people don't reach out for help and don't seek help or maybe don't know where to find that help," Ms Harney said as she unveiled the document, Reach Out - The National Strategy for Suicide Prevention. "Forty per cent of suicides are by males under the age of 35. That is a rising trend and very worrying trend. Suicide is touching more and more families in our society. One suicide is one too many. The difference with this strategy and what has happened in the past is that this is very action focused - a new office is being established to co-ordinate the strategy."

She insisted harnessing new technology to reach vulnerable youngsters and de-stigmatising the issue were priorities "A lot of young people don't read papers, or watch TV or even listen to the radio in the way that we do. We need to find new ways to reach them, like texting and the internet. We need to de-stigmatise suicide as well. In the past a lot of families didn't want to admit that a family member had committed suicide."

The strategy also calls for a fast-track referral system for those most vulnerable and a campaign to target other major at-risk groups like the unemployed and prisoners. A bereavement counselling and support programme specifically for relatives of suicide victims will also be created.

Fine Gael health spokesman Dan Neville TD said the initiative was important, but questioned the lack of specific resources earmarked for the strategy.

Head of the new National Office for Suicide Prevention Geoff Day said the document represented a break with the past. "The strategy will be co-ordinated by my office and if things don't improve then people will be able to come to me and demand to know why."