Suicide reporting - Judgment is not the aim

The Dublin City Coroner has questioned the accuracy of statistics suggesting that Dublin has a lower incidence of suicide than the rest of the country.

He has called on the Central Statistics Office to conduct a national survey of coroners’ records to ensure that suicides are properly recorded.

The pressure of the current recession could well contribute to suicide. Traditionally, there was a reluctance to label a death as suicide, especially as it may negate an insurance policy. There are suggestions that many deaths in Dublin are classified as “undetermined”, instead of probable suicides, and this could explain the lower suicide rate in Dublin. The legal principle of beyond a reasonable doubt is strictly applied by the Dublin City Coroner’s Court, which must prove that the victims not only killed themselves but also intended to do so.

Implementing an effective suicide prevention programme is dependent on quality information and statistics. The first step in dealing with a problem is to identify and recognise the actual problem. This must be done not as a judgment of what has happened but to try to prevent other suicides.