Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health if she will provide the number of agencies that are working in the area of suicide bereavement care here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7285/13]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Health the number of agencies working in the area of suicide bereavement care which are in receipt of Exchequer funding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7287/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 718 and 720 together.

Bereavement support for families and communities is critically important in the aftermath of a death by suicide. The aim of bereavement support is to support those immediately affected by the death, to allow them to express their grief and to prevent more suicides from happening in the same area. A range of local and national services provide suicide bereavement support to families and communities. The HSE's National Office for Suicide Prevention provides funding to Console to deliver suicide bereavement support services across the country. The organisation has six regional offices and has a dedicated helpline for individuals bereaved by suicide. The National Office also provides funding to Counselling, Responding, Information & Bereavement Services in HSE South and to Mayo Suicide Liaison Project.

It is important that those providing bereavement support services follow evidence-based practice. In this regard, the National Office for Suicide Prevention, Console and Turas le Cheile developed national quality standards for all levels of suicide bereavement support in Ireland. These standards provide a significant resource for those organisations providing support to individuals at a very vulnerable time in their lives.