Provisional figures indicate a 20 per cent rise in
the number of suicides last year compared to 2011, a HSE suicide
prevention officer has said.
At an Irish Rural
Link event in Moate, Co Westmeath, yesterday, Josephine Rigney said
provisional statistics for 2012 showed 525 incidents were recorded.
Despite
this increase of more than 100, Ms Rigney said the “true figure” was
probably 20 per cent higher again as many deaths were still not recorded
as suicide. “It’s two a day in Ireland,” she added.
While there was not a single cause, she
believed rural isolation, the withdrawal of services, alcohol abuse,
emigration and the fodder crisis all played a role. Lately, she added,
there had been an increase in older people taking their own lives.
Console’s
Galway manager Maria Whyte said Ireland still needed to tackle the
stigma. Some bereaved families accessed Console’s services knowing
their family member took their own life, although it was not recorded as
suicide.
John Evoy of the Men’s Sheds Association
said a recent study found 84 per cent of those attending Men’s Sheds
meetings experienced an increase in “wellbeing”.