Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 14 May 1998

Vol. 491 No. 2

Adjournment Debate. - Suicide Task Force Recommendations.

Mr. Neville:

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise this important and sensitive issue. I thank the Minister for Health and Children for his reply to a question I tabled regarding suicide figures for 1997. He stated that for the first nine months of the year 306 people took their lives, seven of whom were children under the age of 15 years. It is a devastating and tragic statistic. Two children took their lives in 1996. I am extremely concerned that the trend in suicide figures, particularly among young people, is increasing. While I appreciate that we do not have the complete figures for 1997, the overall trend for the first nine months shows an increase of 8 per cent on the 1996 figures.

I call on the Minister for Health and Children to immediately implement in full the recommendations of the National Task Force on Suicide. Irish society must deal with this serious public health issue. Society and the State must adopt a compassionate and informed response towards those who feel suicidal. In an effort to reduce the high levels of suicide, especially among young males, we must identify the reasons that lie behind it. Changes in the fabric of society, levels of depression, alcohol, drug abuse, social isolation, changes in religious practice and a sense of hopelessness are some of the factors that have contributed to the increased levels.

Our annual suicide rate can be reduced; other countries have achieved this. Suicide prevention programmes must be devised on the basis of the recommendations of the National Task Force on Suicide. Irish society must examine the values and norms which have placed enormous pressure on young people. It is devastating to note that seven children under the age of 15 years committed suicide in the first nine months of 1997. The pace of social and cultural change has not been faster. Most jobs now last less than five years, acquired skills quickly become redundant and individuals must become more adaptable. What is seen as an opportunity for some can be a threat for others. Stress affects young men and women, although young males are tending to prove less adaptable to change in their status. Our education system must be broadened, particularly in the case of boys, to encompass varying modern, social and domestic conditions.

While the physical health of young people today may be better compared with that of former years, the same is not true of the social and psychological pressures to which young people are exposed. This relates in part to the increasing instability of family life, as well as changing personal and family relationships. A special task force should be set up to examine the position of children and young people and its aims should be simple. It should be given the task of determining the range and size of problems facing young people in modern Ireland and the best methods of addressing, from a social, recreational and educational point of view, the problems identified.

I thank the Minister for coming into the House to reply to this important social issue.

Dr. Moffatt:

The report of the National Task Force on Suicide, published in February 1998, put forward a national suicide prevention-reduction strategy and identified the various authorities with jurisdiction in suicide prevention strategies and their respective responsibilities. The action recommended in the report to reverse the incidence of suicide and attempted suicide is set out in a series of recommendations outlined in the report. These include the provision and structure of services relating to suicide and to attempted suicide, the prevention of suicide and parasuicide, intervention, aftermath and aftercare, and research and evaluation.

Since the publication of the report, the Minister has been in contact with his ministerial colleagues in the Departments of Justice Equality and Law Reform, Education and Science and the Environment and Local Government, with a view to implementing the recommendations of the task force and my Department has contacted all the statutory agencies identified in the report with jurisdiction in suicide prevention strategies, requesting that the necessary measures be put in place to ensure the implementation of the recommendations which relate to their respective areas. My Department will follow up on this initial contact.

The establishment of a suicide research group by the chief executive officers of the health boards is central to the strategy to prevent and reduce suicide and attempted suicide. The chief executive officers are in the process of establishing this group and I expect it to be convened shortly. Membership of the group will include experts in the areas of mental health, public health and research. The main responsibilities of the suicide research group will include reviewing ongoing trends in suicide and parasuicide, co-ordinating research into suicide and making appropriate recommendations to the chief executive officers. The work of this group will be ongoing and it will report regularly to the chief executive officers

The task force recommended that steps be taken to make the mental health services more accessible to the public, particularly to our young people. Concern was also expressed at the risk of suicide in older people. In response to these concerns, I have given priority to the further development of mental health services for older people and child and adolescent psychiatric services and resources have been made available this year to enable improvements to be made in each of these services. It is the Minister's intention to allocate additional resources to enable these services to be further developed in the next few years. It is also intended to increase the level of capital available for the development of mental health facilities in the community to make services more accessible to people.

I trust the Deputy will accept this Government is committed to the objectives of the report of the National Task Force on Suicide to put forward a national suicide prevention-reduction strategy and to further develop our mental health services to tackle this increasing tragedy in our society.