Mental health and suicide crisis ‘a national emergency’

The Government is under pressure to make mental health and suicide prevention a national emergency after the Dáil heard concerns about 16 people taking their own lives in two weeks in Cork.

Opposition parties raised the issue of suicides in the city and county after the Irish Examiner highlighted the crisis, with calls from mental health campaigners for better support services.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the suicide crisis sweeping through Cork was twice the national rate.

“No issue is capturing the mood or the attention of our people, and especially our young people, more than mental health and suicide. It is causing enormous grief, devastation, fear, anxiety and worry,” he told the Dáil.

A national dialogue was needed, he said, and additional resources could be found for community interventions and counselling.

The concern was raised after mental health campaigner Conor Cusack called for a 24/7 “emotional wellbeing centre” in response to the crisis.

In a moving appeal, Mr Cusack told of how he helped cut a friend’s son down from a tree recently — one of 16 people to die by suspected suicide in the Cork region in the last two weeks.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said the “tragic phenomenon” of suicide had affected many nationwide. The mental health budget will be €851m next year. The HSE was working with schools affected in Cork, while a new taskforce would intervene.

Mental Health Minister Helen McEntee is also to be sent to Cork to ensure enough resources are there.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams criticised the Government response and said mental health and suicide needed to be dealt with as a “national emergency”.

Mr Kenny suggested young people reach out to friends online.

“People should understand that if they know somebody with mental health difficulties through their digital connections — Facebook or the other ways in which young people connect with each other now — help and assistance is there that was never there before.”