Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last March the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children heard several compelling presentations about suicide in Ireland from Pieta House, the National Office for Suicide Prevention and the National Suicide Prevention Foundation, to name a few. Three key messages which emerged were the need for greater awareness raising, communication and co-ordination among different organisations, and eliminating the stigma of mental illness. By this time next week, ten more people will have died by suicide, eight of whom will be men. Studies have shown that the uptake of mental health services is significantly higher among women than men. This uptake results in early intervention, assessment and in many cases saving of lives. If we want to reduce male suicide, which is what we should be concentrating on, we must further promote the "Mind Our Men" message and make everyone aware of the signs of distress and potential suicide. Awareness raising and education are keys to this.

I recently submitted a parliamentary question on the number and type of suicide programmes and organisations available in Ireland. I was informed that the National Office for Suicide Prevention has developed a range of initiatives to support people who are suicidal. At the committee hearings we were informed that there was anything between 350 and 500 initiatives. Does the Minister know exactly how many support groups and initiatives there are? Where are they and who runs them? Are their personnel trained in counselling, bereavement counselling, etc.? Where and how should one of my constituents in Dún Laoghaire, who is in a difficult state of mental health, reach out to one of these organisations? Which one is best? Which one should that person not contact?

Joan Freeman from Pieta House advised the committee, "[A]ll the agencies dealing with suicide, whether it be prevention, intervention or postvention, are all scrambling for the one pot. There is no cohesion whatsoever and one agency battles against the other". This is not good enough and cannot continue. This lack of cohesion is severely damaging. I urge these different initiatives to co-operate more and be made more widely known and available. I believe that work has been started by the National Office for Suicide Prevention to establish an inventory of all organisations working in this area. I hope this will result in a more comprehensive approach and more cohesion between services. There is still a stigma associated with suicide and mental illness, particularly for men in terms of opening up about their emotional literacy and welfare. We really do have another journey to make in this regard.

We mist also not forget about the families bereaved by suicide. Stigma campaigns need to be balanced with campaigns that show the impact of suicide on communities and individuals. Finally, the growing problem of cyberbullying and its impact on mental health, particularly among young people cannot be underestimated. We are only too familiar with a number of tragic suicides of young children and teenagers who, it appeared, were being severely bullied and targeted online. I will chair a National Cyberbullying Conference in September in Dublin Castle. We plan to address the matters of education, awareness raising, the role of parents and educators in an effort to really tackle this problem. Some of the major social media providers will be there and questions need to be answered.

I thank the Minister for his time and look forward to updating him on the outcome of this conference and to his continued commitment to implementing A Vision for Change.

See this speech in context