Enough talk, we must act on suicide - Mental health crisis

PROOF that mental health remains the most neglected part of the Irish health service comes from an examination of the suicide crisis sweeping Cork, as revealed in the Irish Examiner yesterday.

The statistics are horrific: In the city alone, 16 people are believed to have taken their own lives. Among them is a 16-year-old boy scout from Greenmount in the south inner city — along with two of his friends of the same age, a 15-year-old girl from Ballyphehane and a 17-year-old girl from Rochestown. Others include an 18-year-old boy from Mayfield on the city’s northside and a 44-year-old woman from Ballyphehane, proving that suicide is no respecter of class, gender or age. It affects us all.

The rate of suicides in the Cork region is almost twice the national average. That is the statistic but, beyond the numbers lies the real heartache, horror, and grief for the families and loved one left behind.

Many of them will be asking themselves the perennial question: what reason did he (or she) have to die? The reality is you don’t need a reason to die; you need a reason to live.

Ten years ago, US President Barack Obama wrote about reclaiming the American dream in his book, The Audacity of Hope. In contrast, all we in Ireland can offer our vulnerable citizens is the audacity of despair. There must be a better way.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was quizzed in the Dáil yesterday about the Government’s response to the crisis.

In what appeared to be an ill-prepared and waffling response, Mr Kenny spoke about the need to have a ‘conversation’ about suicide and mental health. He pointed to Ireland having a dedicated minister for mental health and outlined new services that are opening in Cork that will raise awareness and offer help particularly to young people.

The problem, Taoiseach, is that another ‘conversation’ is the last thing we need. We have already had too much talking and the issue of suicide has — literally and in every other sense — been talked to death. What we now need is action to prevent and circumvent suicide.

But, how to do that? Firstly, it is essential to establish the scale of the problem, not just in Cork but in the whole of the country and to recognise that a proportionate response is needed, as a matter of the gravest urgency.

During the Dáil discussion on the issue Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin pointed to the need to resource properly non governmental organisations that have experience in dealing with vulnerable and suicidal people. That is essential.

The sad reality is that there is no cure for suicide but it is something we may be able to prevent if we offer sustained counselling and help for those in despair in order to show them that life can be better than their experiences.

Most of all, we need to offer hope.

Ten years on from the launch of the government’s Vision for Change mental health policy, there is still no 24-hour crisis care. Providing that would not be the full answer but it would be a significant start.