JOBLESS people are three times more likely than those in employment to take their own lives, the Irish Association of Suicidology annual conference was told yesterday.Keynote speaker Stephen Platt, professor of Health Policy Research at the University of Edinburgh, said the financial crisis was likely to have a detrimental affect on mental health.
He said research showed that even in cases where no serious mental health has been recorded, there was a 70% greater chance of an unemployed person dying by suicide.
Prof Platt said the full effect of recession stress would not be seen by the millionaire jumping out the window, but poor people who have to deal with loss of income, job loss and economic strain.
All of this he said, led to increased substance abuse, relationship and marital breakdown, and social isolation. He said an analysis of previous recessions suggested a correlation between economic downturns and the level of suicides in Britain.
This time he said, not only were more people becoming unemployed and as a result, more psychologically vulnerable, but also because those in employment felt threatened too.
Minister of State for Mental Health John Maloney yesterday opened the 13th annual conference, entitled Surviving Recession: Promoting Mental Health and Prevention Suicide, in Adare, Co Limerick.
Launching revised and updated IAS/Samaritans media guidelines for reporting suicide and self-harm, Mr Maloney made a commitment to appointing a director of mental health services before the end of the year, as recommended in A Vision for Change, the government’s blueprint for improved services.
President of the IAS, Fine Gael TD, Dan Neville said he was extremely concerned over recent spending cuts to suicide and self-harm prevention programmes.
"We had a 12.5% cut in the last budget. Now more than ever was a time when more resources should be put in, rather than cutting funding," he said.
"There are serious concerns that spending cuts to mental health could lead to an increase in suicide," he said.
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