Prevention body pledges to set specific targets to reduce suicides

THE National Office for Suicide Prevention says it will set measurable targets for reducing suicides. Its first report confirmed there were 432 registered suicides last year.

The office’s first annual report contains stark details on the manner in which 2,400 people took their own lives in a five-year period.

It showed that 59% of men who committed suicide had hanged themselves, although the figure rose to 70% for men in the most dangerous age group (15-24 years).

For women, the report revealed that in 2004 one out of every 166 girls in their late teens was admitted to an accident and emergency ward to be treated for deliberate self-harm.

The suicide rate has doubled since the 1980s, and men under 35 accounted for four in every 10 suicides, the report found.

It also showed men are four times more likely to commit suicide than women.

There were also over 11,000 cases of deliberate self-harm recorded in Irish hospitals, with the highest rates among females aged 15-19.

The report sets out the agenda of the NOSP after its first year in office. Spokesman Derek Chambers says that after bedding itself down, it is preparing to set specific tests to measure its success.

Mr Chambers said: “Every single action contained in our plan is designed so that it can be measured against a deliverable process of evaluations.”

He said that in 2006 it had prospered in implementing the short-term goals described in the annual report.

Furthermore, once it has enough statistics to build a complete picture of suicide in Ireland, it will begin to set specific targets on eroding figures that have left Ireland with the fifth highest rate of youth suicide in the EU.

After reading the report, John Connolly of the Irish Association of Suicidology said seeing the rates of suicide continue to decline marginally since they peaked in 1998 was encouraging, but the office faced very difficult challenges.

He said: “It is gratifying to some degree, but when we talk about numbers and the rates of suicide you have to be careful how we talk about them because there is still a certain degree of cases that are not reported.”

Fine Gael spokesman Deputy Dan Neville said that many of the figures released yesterday were already in the public domain and the low level of funding committed to the NOSP had led to a “very woolly” first report.

He said: “The fact of the matter is the funding this programme has is €1.2 million, but the National Safety Council, which looks after road safety, has a budget of €29m, even though more people die by suicide every year than on our roads.

“There is no funding available or effort made to encourage young people to de-stigmatise the issue because it is that stigma that prevents the Government being challenged on this.”

He said Fine Gael and Labour would increase the funding for the NOSP to €10m a year if it was elected to Government.

NOSP representative Mr Chambers feels the office will have an impact but it needs to be supported by all of the relevant schools, health agencies, youth organisations and funding bodies for marginalised groups.