Strategy on suicide left to ‘handful’ of people

A "handful" of people are responsible for implementing the national suicide prevention strategy, according to the former deputy head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention.

Derek Chambers said it made no sense for the Government not to resource the office properly given how sensitive the issue of suicide was.

The office has four staff, not including the acting director. A permanent director is expected to be appointed next month.

Mr Chambers said the structure "is not something that is replicated in other countries".

"If the State is going to run the NOSP, it really has to resource it properly because it’s such an incredibly exposed office. But the reality is, a handful of people are trying to implement the national suicide prevention strategy," he said.

Now a director of policy at the youth mental health charity Inspire, Mr Chambers said there were a number of options the Government could consider in restructuring the NOSP.

"They could take it into the mainstream HSE structure, probably under the banner of mental health, and they would have the advantage of a bigger team to draw on and more resources. Or they could made it independent in the manner of the Road Safety Authority."

Mr Chambers said the Government could also maintain the existing structure, "which has its own advantages and disadvantages".

"Having a national office does get people’s attention and it is a good focal point for communities who find it difficult to know how to respond."

Fianna Fáil’s Seanad spokesman on health, Marc Mac Sharry, described as "inexcusable" the Government’s failure to fill the post of director at NOSP.

Property developer and founder of the 3Ts (Turn the Tide of Suicide) charity, Noel Smyth, said politicians saw suicide as "a bit like the poor in that it is always going to be with us".

Speaking on RTÉ radio, he said there were "no votes in suicide". He also questioned claims by Kathleen Lynch, the mental health minister, that they were having difficulties filling the director’s post at NOSP.

"This is not exactly a country brimming over with people not looking for work. I could think of at least 10 people who could be suitable. If you actually made [it] ... a position with power and authority and not one in where you are basically constantly looking over their [sic] shoulder."

It was difficult to "come out swinging at the Government" for its record on suicide when groups are dependent on the Government for funding, Mr Smyth said.

However, Ms Lynch said it would be the duty of the director "to actually not just tell government, but to tell me, and to tell wider society" what needed to be done. She added: "I believe this to be one of the fundamental duties that they would have, and no one, no one, I believe, in this country or this Government, would actually stop anyone from doing that."

Mr Chambers said it was a fact of life that people "did not talk out against their paymaster".