Task Force on Suicide - Government must act immediately

This week the Government will be presented with the report from the Task Force on Suicide which will seek to address one of the most appalling problems facing this country which relentlessly, every year, claims hundreds of lives.

It is understandable that those concerned with highlighting the annual devastation it wreaks on families may be rather sceptical of the Coalition’s reaction to whatever proposals it may contain.

Shamefully, the Government chose to ignore the recommendations made to it seven years ago by an expert group, many of them relating to suicide. Practically, none of them were implemented in a response which was symptomatic of the administration’s abysmal attitude to the general issue of mental health services.

The tragic events which occurred in Co. Carlow over the weekend, resulting in a shooting and a suicide, was evocative of a similar garda stand-off in Abbeylara and should serve to remind people that promised resources were not delivered.

Next Thursday a national expert group on suicide reports its recommendations. To coincide with that, the Irish Examiner will carry a three-day series, beginning today, investigating this insidious dark side of Irish society.

To publish such a series may be frowned upon by some who would argue that it serves only to encourage the very thing which it seeks to prevent. Such an attitude only compounds what is a devastating illness which has thrived on the silence that has surrounded it for decades.

Consecutive governments have maintained this head-in-the-sand policy, not recognising that it is a silent killer which has affected, and continues to affect, countless thousands of families. It preys particularly on the young and elderly, and mostly the male population.

It is a cancer that demands to be addressed because it has reached appalling proportions and attacks, as it does, the most vulnerable among us.

Society, quite simply, must confront suicide because it is pervasive across all strands and now takes a bigger toll of victims than do road traffic accidents.

However much the current Government may protest that it has heavily invested in mental health, the fact remains that a niggardly seven per cent of the 11 billion health budget is spent on mental health services.

Consequently, it is not remarkable that Ireland experienced the biggest increase in suicides in the European Union over the course of the past two decades.

Despite the fact that it accounts for more deaths annually than accidents on our roads, it is perplexing that it has never been the subject of intensive public awareness campaigns such as have road safety, or even safety at work or on farms.

Last year, the number of deaths from suicide was 457, up from 444 the previous year, and most of them were males.

It is inconceivable that the Government has ignored a problem which results inevitably in such an unacceptably high death toll every year, one which can be predicted every January.

Nobody will disagree with Junior Minister Tim O’Malley, who is responsible for mental health issues, that funding is adequate for mental health issues.

The issue of suicide in this country needs more than more money invested in it. There is a need for a major sea change on the part of the Government in its grossly negligent attitude to this killer condition.

Therefore, it is vital that the recommendations which are expected to be delivered by the task force on suicide be implemented as soon as possible by the Government without any equivocation.