Government must take urgent action to tackle suicide rate, say TDs

THE Government should stop dithering about Ireland’s suicide epidemic and urgently implement a €60 million package of reforms to cut death rates, an influential group of TDs said yesterday.

Their report castigated the Government for allocating just €1.2m a year to suicide prevention compared to €29.5m on preventing road deaths.

Latest figures show 457 people took their own lives in 2004 — compared to 375 dying on the roads — with factors including Ireland’s fragmented society, job insecurity, alcohol consumption, and family law weighted against fathers.

Although Ireland’s suicide rate is among Europe’s lowest, rocketing death rates since 1990 among males under the age of 35 and females under 25 has made Ireland’s youth suicide rate among the highest in Europe at 15.7 per 100,000 of the population.

Yesterday, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children made 33 recommendations to the Government on reversing Ireland’s suicide rates.

Fine Gael’s Dan Neville, vice-chairman of the report committee, said the Government had failed to address suicide or take notice of previous reports on the problem.

“It is time for urgent action to reduce levels of suicide and self-harm and to comprehensively update and modernise psychiatric services. For those (people) under 30 this is a very serious issue, which is being ignored,” he said.

“One-in-four people will be affected by a mental health problem at some time in their life yet only 7% of the health budget goes on psychiatric services.”

The amount spent on psychiatric services compares to 12% in England and Wales, and 18% in Scotland, where €10m a year is spent on suicide prevention.

The committee’s recommendations to reverse Ireland’s suicide rate include:

nA health campaign aimed at all transition-year students to combat self-harm and suicidal thoughts.

nA national co-ordinator to work with the Health Service Executive and the education sector to promote mental health in schools.

nA media campaign to promote positive mental health and take away the stigma away of mental health problems.

nGreater help from gardaí and health services for those bereaved by suicide.

nFaster referral for the suicidal to mental health care with extra training for gardaí and prison officers.

nBetter treatment services to combat the abuse of alcohol abuse, which is strongly linked to deaths by suicide.

nFuture recommendations of the Inspector of Mental Health Services to be implemented within five years or the relevant Government minister to resign.

Criticising last year’s Government suicide prevention strategy for failing to set targets, the committee’s report outlines funding as well as timeframes for its proposals.

Saying the country was in the grip of a suicide epidemic, the report said: “The Government is urged to cease prevarication and to implement these recommendations.”