Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 April 2013
1252. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health the current status of funding in respect of suicide prevention in view of commitments to ring-fence a sum of approximately €35 million; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16860/13]
View answer€35 million additional funding was provided in Budget 2013 for the continued development of our mental health services. This funding is being used for the further development of forensic services and community mental health teams for adults, children and older persons and for mental health intellectual disability, and to advance activities in the area of suicide prevention.
Funding for suicide prevention is provided to the National Office for Suicide Prevention (NOSP) by the HSE from its overall budget for mental health. The annual budget for suicide prevention increased this year to over €13 million. Over €8 million of this is provided to the NOSP to fund voluntary and statutory agencies delivering services in the area of prevention, intervention, postvention and research. This includes an additional €1 million from the €35 million allocation for 2013 (above). The remaining €5 million for suicide prevention is available regionally to fund HSE Resource Officers for Suicide Prevention, Self-Harm Liaison Nurses in Hospital Emergency Departments and local suicide prevention initiatives.
The NOSP is reviewing its current activities to make the most of our available resources, including looking at best practice internationally to inform evidence-based policy decisions. This will result in a revised strategic approach for 2013 and will inform the final phase of Reach Out, our National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention which runs until 2014. I expect that the HSE will approve the revised approach in the very near future. This reviewed approach will build on progress made to date, which includes the provision of awareness and training programmes such as safeTALK and ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training), National Mental Health Awareness Campaigns as well as the Guidelines for Post-Primary Schools on Mental Health & Suicide Prevention which were jointly developed with the Department of Education and Skills.
