Isolation affects elderly people in all areas

I WISH to make a comment with regard to your article on January 6 (Drink driving laws ‘increase suicides’).

I believe the headline for this article is misleading and gives an over simplified reason for elderly people living in rural Ireland taking their own lives.

Studies have shown that the reasons for someone taking their own life are complex. Although a catalyst may appear to be obvious, suicide is never the result of a single factor or event, and is likely to have several inter-related causes. The issues raised by Kerry coroner Terence Casey focus on the changes in rural lifestyle which lead to rural isolation. Legislation on blood/alcohol level as pointed out by the coroner is only one of the factors that have impacted on elderly people living in rural Ireland.