Suicide crisis - Lack of State funding is outrageous

WHEN suicide prevention experts go out of their way to condemn Government research funding as a “national disgrace” it is time to take notice.

Vital research work is almost totally dependent on State backing and so those at the coal face are understandably reluctant to risk cutting off what meagre funding they get.

When they accuse the Government of failing to provide sufficient funding for suicide prevention, it amounts to damning criticism of Coalition policy.

Significantly, the funding issue erupts as delegates at a national forum hear that the number of people presenting to A&E wards around the country with self harm has not dropped significantly in recent years. In 2005, according to the fifth annual report of the national Registry of Deliberate Self Harm, there were almost 11,000 presentations to hospital due to self harm, involving some 8,600 people.

An alarming aspect of the report is that almost 5,000 of those were under 30 years of age. To quote the National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF): “The ongoing high rates of deliberate self harm in Ireland reflect the high level of psychological and psychiatric morbidity in the population.”

Outrageously, a countrywide study of suicide patterns is now jeopardised by lack of State funding. As revealed by the Irish Examiner, Professor Kevin Malone, a leading suicide expert, is unsure of getting the funding he needs to profile and archive the lives of people who have died by suicide over the past three years.

Even though more Irish people take their own lives than die on the roads every year, a relatively paltry sum is devoted to exploring a crisis that takes a bigger toll on young men in Ireland than anywhere in Europe.

The contrasting approach of government towards two tragic problems afflicting society is startling. In 2005, for example, the Coalition poured €30 million into road safety measures. Indeed, there are compelling arguments for ploughing more money into the campaign to reduce the carnage on our roads.

In contrast, however, the regime is cutting funding for suicide research from €3.7m to €1.8m. Yet, the stark reality is that in 2005, some 399 people were killed on the roads, whereas 431 took their own lives that year.

Further illustrating this imbalance, the Government is spending millions of euro on publishing and circulating the revamped Rules of the Road to every home in the country free of charge. Updated for the first time since 1995, the rules will be available in English and Irish, Polish, Mandarin Chinese and Russian.

Though some aspects have been criticised, the 200-page manual is long overdue and extremely worthwhile. Yet, at the same time, the Government’s niggardly approach to suicide prevention is setting back vital research projects.

Every day of the year, some local community is rocked by a suicide, leaving families, loved ones, friends and neighbours in a state of shock, grief, and bewilderment.

Unfortunately, the appalling lack of conviction about Government efforts to address this grave crisis is probably down to lack of public pressure. This is largely because suicide is still regarded as a taboo subject and is generally swept under the carpet by society.

Until recent times, media policy was not to report suicides as such. As the blinds are drawn back, however, the reporting of suicide will increase accordingly. Once sensationalism is avoided, this should be seen in a positive light.

Under Ireland’s cynical brand of politics, it will require a surge of public pressure to force Government to give this tragic issue the priority and funding it warrants. Otherwise, politicians will go on paying lip service to this grave crisis.