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€1 million extra for Suicide Prevention

Posted on 02/09/10 by John Moloney

The Government is providing additional funding of almost €1million for a range of suicide prevention measures under the dormant accounts funding. This is in addition to the €4.5 million already provided this year.

“This is a sign of the Government’s firm commitment to reducing the number of deaths by suicide, as part of a whole community effort to ensure that people in distress do not feel isolated and alone. The increase in suicide rates is a matter of concern for me and for the Government and we must, I believe, redouble our efforts to reduce the incidence of suicide and make every effort to reach out to people in despair. The tragedy of suicide affects every community in the country”. Minister for Mental Health John Moloney said.

The funding announced today will allow communities to develop suicide prevention initiatives and which will assist them in preventing suicidal behaviour at all levels by providing for example places where people can access support and information such as youth cafes; networks of carers and supporters in the community that can respond to signs of risk by completing ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) or SafeTalk (suicide awareness training programmes); and suicide bereavement support information, outreach and counselling services to support families and communities when individual tragedies occur.

The programme will help communities to develop integrated local action plans for suicide prevention which can draw on positively evaluated projects elsewhere. This approach will enhance the ability of communities to prevent suicidal behaviour at all levels of risk and is consistent with Reach Out the National Strategy for Action on Suicide Prevention (2005) and will complement the national work undertaken by the NOSP.

The tragedy of suicide affects every community in the country. The Government is firmly committed to reducing suicide, as part of a whole community effort to ensure that people in distress do not feel isolated and alone.

See Change - Reducing the stigma

The launch of the National Stigma Reduction Campaign ‘See Change’ in April last. The aim of the campaign is to:

Reduce the stigma associated with mental health problems and challenge discrimination.
Create an environment where people are more open and positive in their attitudes and behaviour towards mental health.
Promote a greater understanding and acceptance of and support for people with mental health problems, and
Empower individual people with experience of mental health problems to gain equality, respect and rights.

As part of this campaign Minister John Moloney TD will be hosting a series of townhall meetings around the country. The following meetings have been confirmed so far: