Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly. I thank the Senator for raising it.

The annual budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention in 2011 is €4.2 million which includes an additional €1 million provided this year to enable the office to build on initiatives taken to date and bring added momentum and new impetus to activities to address the increasing incidence of suicide. The additional funding will enable the office to target priority areas, particularly new or emerging groups vulnerable to suicide or self-harm.

As I am sure the Senator will appreciate, at a time when the number of deaths by suicide is rising, there are increasing demands on the budget of the National Office for Suicide Prevention. The initiatives funded by it include the development and implementation of national training programmes. Since 2004 approximately 22,500 people have been trained under the two-day applied suicide intervention skills training, ASIST, programme which is internationally recognised. SafeTALK, a half-day training programme that prepares participants to identify persons with thoughts of suicide, has been provided for approximately 3,000 participants. Other initiatives include the development of a media monitoring mechanism; the availability of self-harm services through hospital emergency departments; implementing recommendations arising from a review of bereavement services; supporting 15 voluntary organisations working in the field of suicide prevention; developing mental health awareness campaigns such asYour Mental Health and Let Someone Know which is aimed at young people.

In 2008 the HSE's National Office for Suicide Prevention commissioned the National Suicide Research Foundation to pilot a suicide support and information system. The objective of this initiative is to prevent deaths by suicide by facilitating access to support for the bereaved while at the same time obtaining information on risk factors associated with suicide and deaths classified as open verdicts, which is in line with the Reach Out and A Vision for Change strategies. The initiative has since been piloted in close collaboration with the coroners in Cork city and county. Following a coroner's inquest, information on confirmed cases of suicide and undetermined deaths is obtained and bereaved family members receive information on suitable support services, if required. Since the start of the project 183 cases of suicide and deaths of undetermined intent have been included in the research.

The National Office for Suicide Prevention funded the initiative on a pilot basis between 2008 and 2010. However, given the increasing demands on its budget and the need to focus on service provision as opposed to research, the office is not in a position to continue to provide funding beyond the pilot phase. The annual cost of maintaining the suicide support and information system in County Cork with three coroners is €75,000, and a national roll-out of the initiative would cost significantly more. In this context, it should be noted that the National Suicide Research Foundation already receives approximately 20% - €800,000 - of the budget of the national office, so research is being done and supported at national level. Some €500,000 of this is to administer the national registry for deliberate self-harm and €300,000 is to undertake core research projects. Much research is being done in this area and it is being funded.

Mental health and suicide prevention is a priority. Some €35 million has been ring-fenced from within the health budget to develop community mental health teams and services and to implement Reach Out to ensure early access to more appropriate services for both adults and children. My colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is working with officials in the Department of Health and the HSE to deliver further progress in this area. She was not in a position to take this Adjournment matter but I have no doubt this will be brought to her attention and I will do so also.