Poor psychiatric services play role in murder-suicide cases

RECENT high-profile suicide associated killings need to be viewed in the context of the country’s poor record on mental health, according to the Irish Association of Suicidology.

Yesterday’s murder of two elderly parents by their adult son, who turned the gun on himself, comes two days after a mother in north Cork drowned herself and her nine-month-old son.

A statement from the association said people suffering from psychiatric problems cannot get sufficient access to services.

“To many the psychiatric services are remote, not user-friendly and not always readily accessible. The provision of psychiatric and counselling services is unevenly spread throughout the country.

“There is a need for greater funding of all of these services and for the voluntary organisations that are making such valuable contributions to all aspects of suicide prevention and support for the bereaved at both national and local levels,” the association said.

It said the recommendations of the Vision for Change expert group on mental health services need to be implemented “as a matter of urgency”.

And the Government has to invest in voluntary agencies, such as the Samaritans, who can provide direct services in moments of extreme distress.

However, the statement said it was not simply the responsibility of the statutory bodies to promote positive mental health.

In particular the association said the media is not fulfilling its job to provide accurate information without creating an allure for possible copycat killings.

“The media have a very clear role to play in educating the public about suicide and suicide prevention and when, how and where to get help.

“Too often some sectors of the media forget the latter in the immediate aftermath of a crisis with what results one can but guess,” the statement said.

Incidents of murder-suicide have traditionally gone unreported.

The association said very little is known about this type of killing although it happens more often than people realise.

“Murder-suicide [where a parent kills their child and kills themselves] though a rare event is more common than one might think and always a matter of great concern. These events are thought to be under reported,” it said.

It said that although events needed to be portrayed to the public it did not see the value in over sensational media coverage.

It was especially critical of media reports after last weekend’s death of 33-year-old Nollaig Owen, who drowned her nine-month-old son Tadhg before taking her own life.

“Not unreasonably, suicide-filicide has received a great deal of media attention.

“Much of the reporting has been mature and reflective.

“Some, however, has been appalling, broken all the internationally agreed guidelines for the portrayal and reporting of suicide in the media including those published by the Irish Association of Suicidology and Samaritans.

“These guidelines are all supported by robust research. Shock, horror, over dramatic, simplistic, repetitive reporting may frequently lead to copycat suicide and this is also true of murder-suicide and suicide-filicide,” the association said.

The IAS said everybody dealing with the issue of suicide must bear in mind that people with suicidal tendencies will often trawl for information when they are planning how to kill themselves.