Alarming rise in suicide level ‘a national disaster’

THE alarming level of suicide has been described as “a national disaster”, with figures showing the number who took their lives last year to be the highest in a decade.

Director of the National Office for Suicide Prevention Geoff Day said the effects of the recession would see the number of suicides exceed 500,– a situation that he described as “a disaster”.

“The provisional figures for last year, the first three-quarters of last year, showed a 26% increase on the previous similar three-quarters of the previous year. If you extrapolate that and do the sums that brings you back past 500. That is a serious problem.”