Double tragedy - Suicide crisis needs urgent attention

AS the grim spectre of suicide stalks yet another community, there is an overwhelming case for the Government to tackle this crisis.

What should have been a time of celebration has become a time of grief for the families of Darren Lavery, 22, and Jonathan McKenna, 21, whose bodies were found in a house near the Border village of Emyvale, Co Monaghan.

This tragedy will be felt deeply by every community and every home in the country. Sadly, we will never be able to fully comprehend the dark reasons which led two seemingly normal and well-balanced individuals to apparently enter a suicide pact and then to succeed in carrying it out.

So endemic is the problem of suicide that hardly a person in the country has not been touched by the loss of a loved one or friend.

The stark reality is that Ireland has one of Europe’s highest suicide rates, especially among young men. More people take their own lives in this country every year than are killed on the roads.

A blizzard of reports and endless columns of statistics illustrate the appalling extent of the crisis. But the Government has taken few concrete initiatives to address the problem.

Despite the revelation that one-in-four Irish people will suffer a psychiatric or psychological condition in their lifetime, the level of State investment in the psychiatric service has diminished in real terms.

According to the most up-to-date hospital statistics from the National Suicide Research Foundation, more than 11,000 Irish people tried to commit suicide last year. Yet, experts believe the true scale of those who commit acts of self-harm is far more serious than the figures reveal.

Due to lack of government funding for research, society is not getting an accurate picture of the extent of parasuicide. Significantly, it has been identified internationally as one of the main risk factors associated with suicide. Trends show that many victims make repeated attempts to kill themselves.

But because of the chronic lack of investment in this shadowy sector of the country’s creaking health service, no programme exists to ensure those who attempt suicide are followed up when they are discharged from hospital.

Furthermore, since it is not known how many victims of self-harm do not present at hospital, the legacy of parasuicide remains a dark secret in the heart of every community, every town and every village.

Anecdotally, the number of sufferers who do not seek help is believed to be very significant. But anecdotal guesstimates are not enough. What is required is a more realistic programme of government support for, and investment in, efforts to come to grips with this grave situation.

In his deeply informative article on the problem for this newspaper, Dan Neville, president of the Irish Association of Suicidology, charted the steady decline of investment in the country’s psychiatric services. In real terms, the percentage of the total health budget fell from 20% in 1960, to 11% in 1997 and 6.7% this year.

Over the past six years, around €90 million went into developing the psychiatric services. But that sum is derisory compared with the €60 million splurged on the Coalition’s botched electronic voting system.

There is an irresistible case for the National Suicide Research Foundation to be put on a statutory footing. There are also powerful arguments for providing more realistic funding to accurately analyse the causes of Ireland’s suicide crisis.