Government failing to address crisis

DESPITE the fact that more people kill themselves than die on Ireland’s roads every year, there is an appalling lack of conviction about Government efforts to address this crisis.

Any lingering doubts about this are soon dispelled by the an analysis of the official approach to suicide. In 2005, for instance, 399 people were killed on the roads whereas 431 took their own lives that year.

In the same year, the Government spent €30 million on road safety measures. But in 2007 the administration is busy cutting funding for suicide research from €3.7m to €1.8m. That speaks volumes about a regime that pays lip service to the campaign to reduce suicide.

As a major rally heard yesterday, sustained and continued funding is essential if the targets contained in key reports on preventing suicide are to be implemented.

Though it is one of the biggest issues confronting Irish society, the reality is that financial and other forms of support for people working at the coal face of this problem has been niggardly. As a result, voluntary groups and agencies dealing with the problem are operating on a shoestring.

As highlighted by the aptly named group, Turning the Tide of Suicide, which organised yesterday’s rally, there is an unanswerable argument for enhancing research, education and intervention if the death rate is to be lowered.

The statistics, such as they are, make depressing reading. Not a day passes without an incident in a local community. According to estimates, there are between 400 and 500 cases of suicide annually and 11,000 instances of people inflicting self harm.

But the real picture could be much worse since some experts believe the yearly toll of self-harm may run as high as 60,000 cases. By inference, the number of suicides could also be far higher than current estimates suggest.

Sadly, what tends to be lost sight of amid the cold columns of statistics are the poignant human stories, seldom told in the wake of any suicide: the missed or unheard cries for help; the bewilderment of grieving families and distraught loved ones who, more often than not, have to bear their loss in silence.

Generations of Irish people have regarded suicide as a taboo subject. In the popular mind, the social and religious stigma was so heavy that cases were invariably hushed up. If an incident was discussed at all, it was usually whispered in telling nods and winks.

While the stigma persists to this day, there are welcome signs that the blinds are being drawn back. Generally speaking, the media has avoided referring to individual cases because of the risk of triggering copycat suicides.

In another welcome change, the era when relatively few people were seen at the burial of a suspected suicide has gone. Nowadays they are among the largest funerals. This is primarily due to the frightening fact that suicide is the number one killer of young men in Ireland ahead of cancer and road traffic accidents.

As yesterday’s rally clearly showed, there is a compelling need for greater transparency, honesty and co-operation in confronting this deep-seated malaise.

In particular, there is a grave onus on Government to give more realistic funding to the voluntary organisations and agencies fighting a losing battle against the scourge of suicide which continues to claim the lives of countless Irish people, exacting a heavy toll on their families and on Irish society.