Suicide prevention - Look out for each other Christmas

Christmas is a very lonely time for those who have lost family members, with the result that a great many people are not only not looking forward to the month ahead, but actually dreading it.

For them, Christmas really is an ordeal to be endured, not enjoyed. Happy memories of Christmases spent with loved ones who are no longer around are shrouded in heartbreaking sadness. The festive season brings with it a terrible sense of isolation, especially for those who have been recently bereaved.

Former Fianna Fáil Minister Mary O’Rourke was characteristically open about the subject on John Murray’s show on RTÉ radio, when she spoke about how she will feel lonely this Christmas, years after the death of her beloved husband Enda, and the death earlier this year of her nephew Brian Lenihan, the ex-Finance Minister. She will feel lonely, she said, even though she will be surrounded by the love and comfort of her children and grandchildren.

It was refreshing, as is so often the case with Mary O’Rourke, to hear someone speak so candidly about something that is as natural as it is inevitable.

A great many listening know full well how she feels and no doubt her openness will have helped others to be reminded that they are not alone.

Hopefully, what she had to say will prompt others who feel similarly to at least talk to others.

Loneliness, isolation, depression and financial pressures for anyone on their own can be very difficult to deal with. Together they form a lethal cocktail, as rising suicide levels show.

And unfortunately, though it is meant to be a great celebration of Christ’s birth, Christmas and the week’s leading up to it have become a massive pressure point on the most vulnerable, the most financially stressed and the most pained. It is a particularly difficult time for those bereaved by suicide and a time when the suicide help services are stretched to the limit.

We can all do our bit by being particularly aware of our family, friends and work colleagues, by watching out for them, by just being there to listen.

It is a terrible statistic, but an estimated 520 people took their lives in this country in 2009, which was a 25% rise on the level of the previous year. This upsurge was blamed on the pressures of the recession.

Former US President Bill Clinton told Irish-Americans at a St Patrick’s Day gathering in New York that the thing that troubled him most about the economic crisis in Ireland was “the rise in the suicide rate, not just among the young people where it was already too high, but among those in their prime working years who feel somehow that their whole lives have been robbed”.

Last week Ciarán Austin of Console, the suicide bereavement and prevention service, noted that almost 7,000 traumatised adults and 581 children received specialist counselling after seeking assistance following suicide bereavements.