Soaring suicide rates - A crisis we can’t avoid

ANY society that records a 43% increase in suicide rates in a three-month period must ask itself serious questions. What has happened, what great sea change in attitudes has taken place, that so many people feel utterly despondent, that they feel there is no point in living?

The Central Statistics Office reported yesterday that 106 suicides were registered between January and March — 32 more than in the same period in 2008.

In the same period 59 people died on our roads yet huge resources are dedicated to making our roads safer.

Is it because of our focus on the individual — the self — that we do not have the courage to intervene?

Or is it that we are so frightened and confused by suicide that we are frozen emotionally and culturally, unable to help those suffering the agonies leading to it?