Pieta House opens new centre for suicide prevention

PIETA House, the suicide and self-harm charity, opened a new purpose-built facility in Limerick.

Limerick has the seventh highest suicide rate of any city in Ireland and Britain and the highest rate of deliberate self-harm in Ireland.

Fine Gael finance spokesman Michael Noonan, who opened the new centre, said Limerick’s rate of suicide was shocking.

He said: “I hope the provision of this service will build awareness and understanding of these problems which are often misunderstood and treated as taboo subjects.”

Joan Freeman, chief executive of Pieta House, said they were grateful to all supporters of the project including the West Limerick Resource fund, the ESB, the JP McManus Pro Am Fund, as well as the Pieta House Mid-West team, led by the centre’s manager Nora Conway.

Ms Freeman said: “Suicide and self harm is on the rise in Ireland and we are here to support all those who are in distress.”

Pieta Mid-West is located at Ardaulin, Raheen, and will serve Limerick, North Tipperary and Clare but is accessible to people from the general Munster area.

A total of 10 therapists onsite will deliver a face-to-face service for those in the acute stages of distress. The state-of-the-art facility consists of seven therapy rooms and an assessment room.

Pieta House is the only major voluntary organisation in the country providing a professional therapeutic service for communities who may have people who have attempted suicide or who are actively contemplating the act.

The Limerick centre is the charity’s second national facility opened as part of its outreach programme.

Pieta House has also, in the past five years, opened two outreach services in Finglas and Tallaght and next month will open a third outreach centre in Ballyfermot, Co Dublin.

To date, it has successfully treated almost 3,000 people since it opened its doors in 2006.

The organisation hired additional therapists last year and now employs a team of 30 at its professional centre in Lucan, Co Dublin.

The new Limerick centre will be open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Pieta House is looking for volunteers to work at the new centre.

* www.pieta.ie Tel [phone] 484646.