Talk, listen and learn about suicide

THE Irish Examiner continues to highlight the importance of a mature and open attitude to one of the most fundamental public health concerns of all.

If you have known someone who has taken their own life, the feelings and emotions associated with that will dwarf any stark declarations about suicide rates per hundred thousand of the population. Nevertheless, we do need to consider what has happened in this country at a population level to help us better understand the nature and extent of the suicide problem. Our suicide rate grew, more or less, in line with economic growth throughout the 1990s followed by some signs in the first decade of this century that it was beginning to level off following an official peak of 519 deaths in 2001. Up until recently, most agencies were in broad agreement about the number of suicides each year in Ireland (ie around 500 deaths per year).

However, anecdotal evidence is sadly mounting, and early signs from official sources seem to support the feeling that the number of suicide deaths has risen to worrying highs during this period of economic turmoil. Each year, the CSO tells us how many suicide deaths were registered in the previous year — a provisional figure that is almost always revised upwards. That provisional figure for 2009 represented the highest number of suicides registered in a given year in this country at 527 and this will almost certainly be revised upwards.