Re: Sharp increase in suicide rates in Northern IrelandNorthern Irish suicide rates

[Guest guest]

I wonder what the correlation is with the rise of

antidepressant prescriptions...

On 3/16/2011 4:34 AM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Sharp increase in suicide rates in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish

suicide rates have risen by an alarming 64% in the last decade.

O'Hara reports on how communities are

taking action

Share

Comments

(0)

O'Hara

The Guardian, Wednesday 16 March

2011

Article

history

Some

families felt the authorities weren't taking the problem

of rising suicides seriously enough, says Creaney,

director of the Suicide Awareness and Support Group.

Photograph: McErlane

In autumn 2010, during a visit

to my home town of Belfast, one topic was dominating

public conversation: suicide. Over a short period of time,

a number of young people in the city

had killed themselves, and the deaths seemed to be having

a striking effect within communities. In shops, at

bus stops and in bars, people could be heard ruminating on

why the suicides had occurred. They wanted to know what

health authorities and politicians were going to do about

what appeared to be an escalating and serious problem.

Local newspapers splashed on the deaths, while

politicians, including west Belfast MP and leader of Sinn

Féin, Gerry , declared the situation a "crisis" and

vowed to act. A friend of mine articulated a commonly

expressed sentiment: "Why is there so much money being

spent on road safety when more youngsters are killed by

suicide than on the roads?"

Suicide rates have been rising

markedly in Northern Ireland over the

past decade. According to the Public Health Agency (PHA),

after a period of relatively static figures in the latter

half of the last century, between 1999 and 2008 rates of

suicide in Northern Ireland increased by 64%. Most of the

rise was attributable to young men in the 15 to 34 age

group. A large proportion was concentrated in

disadvantaged areas and, in particular, north and west

Belfast. In 2002, 76% of all suicides in Northern Ireland

were male, and 60% were between 15 and 34 years old. By

2008, the latest year for which a reliable breakdown of

the statistics is available, 77% of suicides were male,

but the proportion aged between 15 and 34 had risen to

72%. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable but,

according to data collated by the PHA, the number of

deaths registered as suicides last year looks set to

exceed the 260 identified in 2009.

For a while it looked as though the issue had faded from

view – until last month, when the alleged suicides in a

single month of two children (a 13-year-old boy and an

11-year-old girl) captured the local media's attention.

Both were from the Twinbrook and Colin districts of west

Belfast, one of the most deprived parts of the city and

one that had seen a disproportionate number of last year's

suicides. The deaths seemed to reawaken community

anxieties around the subject. Although the young girl's

family said publicly that she hadn't meant to kill

herself, the statement failed to temper concern among

other parents. Politicians were again calling for action,

schools were on alert to the possible impact on pupils,

and counsellors and local suicide support groups appeared

in the area's housing estates offering assistance to

worried families.

There is an understandable reticence to speculate as to

why suicide rates have gone up so sharply in the past

decade. Experts caution against over-simplification of

what is a complex act. Nevertheless, there are a number of

possible explanations for the upwards trajectory in

Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK, where

rates have remained relatively static over the same time

frame.

Theories being mooted within Northern Ireland include the

long-term impact of entrenched deprivation in some

communities when coupled with issues of identity in a

"post-conflict" society and the legacy of the Troubles for

some of the younger generation of men and boys.

Platt, Samaritans'

trustee and professor of health policy research at the

University of Edinburgh, says: "The suicide rate in

Northern Ireland appears to have increased after the end

of the period known as the Troubles. Previous studies have

shown that suicides decrease during periods of war because

people feel a sense of integration in their communities

while uniting against an adversary. When war ends, this

feeling falls away to the detriment of mental health.

"Suicide rates can also be affected by a number of

different things including recession, rising unemployment,

budget cuts and other social factors."

Grassroots campaigners argue that politicians failed to

intervene early on with robust suicide prevention

initiatives when signs of a rise in the suicide rate were

emerging. Heading, an SDLP politician and deputy

mayor of Lisburn, who knows the Twinbrook and Colin areas

well, argues that without investment in jobs for local

youngsters (youth unemployment is as high as 35% in some

parts of west Belfast), the prevailing sense of

hopelessness they feel will persist, he says. "Many young

people need to feel there's some future. Sometimes, by the

age of 21, they already feel like there is nothing good

ahead of them."

Consultant psychiatrist Philip McGarry contends that

there are a number of important aspects of suicide to be

considered in the Northern Ireland context, including the

legacy of the Troubles. While some people are mystified

that suicide rates have risen since the Good Friday

agreement was signed, McGarry harbours no such bemusement.

That paramilitary violence remained a feature of

working-class communities such as west and north Belfast

"long after" the agreement was signed, and that so many

young men in those areas have mental health problems as a

result, he says, is no coincidence.

Jim Weir of Fasa, a community organisation based on the

Shankill Road, which focuses on substance misuse,

self-harm and suicide, works mainly with young men aged

between 11 and 25. Like McGarry, Weir believes it is a

misnomer that the peace process suddenly resolved

deep-rooted issues. "A lot of young men have issues around

identity. They have complex problems and sometimes alcohol

or drugs make it worse."

What is clear is that even after a decade of rising rates

of suicide there remains uncertainty about how to reduce

them. What local families want above all, though, is a

sense that the problem is a priority and is being tackled.

"When [our group] had its very first meeting there was a

lot of anger in the room, but people didn't know where to

direct it. Families felt as if the authorities weren't

taking the problem seriously enough," says Creaney,

co-founder and director of the voluntary organisation, the

Suicide Awareness and Support Group, based in west

Belfast.

Recent research conducted on behalf of the PHA among

young men who had attempted suicide and survived,

concluded that there was a clear need for more "proactive

outreach" approaches to suicide prevention. It also

recommended that more be done to make young men aware of

the type of advice and assistance already available.

Black, an assistant director at the PHA, says that,

while overall numbers of suicides are low, the focus on

young people and the impact of their deaths on the

tightknit communities that typify deprived areas can be

profound. If the media coverage is sensationalist or

distorted, Black says, it can make a sensitive situation

even worse.

Along with historic underinvestment in mental health

services, this partly explains, she suggests, why

"grassroots" suicide prevention groups – often spearheaded

by bereaved parents – have sprung up across Northern

Ireland over the past decade. Such groups, she says, have

helped drive reforms that culminated in the implementation

of a province-wide suicide prevention strategy in 2006,

known as Protect Life, and other initiatives including a

24/7 telephone helpline. "This came from within

communities," Black says. "There were services available,

but people weren't necessarily aware of them."

Minister for health in the devolved government,

McGimpsey, says that as well as extending the Protect Life

strategy to 2013, in response to rising suicide rates,

there is agreement that politicians need to think more

"innovatively" about the issue. A number of "intermediate"

responses are on the table too, he says, amid fears that

the economic downturn could "place added pressure on

vulnerable people". These include the development of

community response plans to tackle suspected suicide

"clusters".

But Philip McTaggart, who set up the community-based

suicide prevention and support group, Pips Programmes,

when his 17-year-old son killed himself in 2003, is more

stridently critical of progress to date on either

prevention or support for vulnerable youngsters. He says

that while there might be a strategy in place, it is "far

from" sufficient. "People in the statutory sector see it

as a nine-to-five job," he says. "They say they have a

strategy, but that's not what I see out on the street.

Communities are still firefighting on this."

Black cautions that while more is now being done, a

concerted approach "in partnership with communities" is

imperative. One of the many difficult messages to get

across, however, is that change will not come quickly.

"People want a simple solution, understandably," she says.

"But there is no simple solution. We need to take a

long-term view. It requires action over a long time."

Samaritans UK Helpline:

08457 909090

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/16/suicide-rates-northern-ireland?CMP=twt_gu

[Guest guest]

I wonder what the correlation is with the rise of

antidepressant prescriptions...

On 3/16/2011 4:34 AM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Sharp increase in suicide rates in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish

suicide rates have risen by an alarming 64% in the last decade.

O'Hara reports on how communities are

taking action

Share

Comments

(0)

O'Hara

The Guardian, Wednesday 16 March

2011

Article

history

Some

families felt the authorities weren't taking the problem

of rising suicides seriously enough, says Creaney,

director of the Suicide Awareness and Support Group.

Photograph: McErlane

In autumn 2010, during a visit

to my home town of Belfast, one topic was dominating

public conversation: suicide. Over a short period of time,

a number of young people in the city

had killed themselves, and the deaths seemed to be having

a striking effect within communities. In shops, at

bus stops and in bars, people could be heard ruminating on

why the suicides had occurred. They wanted to know what

health authorities and politicians were going to do about

what appeared to be an escalating and serious problem.

Local newspapers splashed on the deaths, while

politicians, including west Belfast MP and leader of Sinn

Féin, Gerry , declared the situation a "crisis" and

vowed to act. A friend of mine articulated a commonly

expressed sentiment: "Why is there so much money being

spent on road safety when more youngsters are killed by

suicide than on the roads?"

Suicide rates have been rising

markedly in Northern Ireland over the

past decade. According to the Public Health Agency (PHA),

after a period of relatively static figures in the latter

half of the last century, between 1999 and 2008 rates of

suicide in Northern Ireland increased by 64%. Most of the

rise was attributable to young men in the 15 to 34 age

group. A large proportion was concentrated in

disadvantaged areas and, in particular, north and west

Belfast. In 2002, 76% of all suicides in Northern Ireland

were male, and 60% were between 15 and 34 years old. By

2008, the latest year for which a reliable breakdown of

the statistics is available, 77% of suicides were male,

but the proportion aged between 15 and 34 had risen to

72%. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable but,

according to data collated by the PHA, the number of

deaths registered as suicides last year looks set to

exceed the 260 identified in 2009.

For a while it looked as though the issue had faded from

view – until last month, when the alleged suicides in a

single month of two children (a 13-year-old boy and an

11-year-old girl) captured the local media's attention.

Both were from the Twinbrook and Colin districts of west

Belfast, one of the most deprived parts of the city and

one that had seen a disproportionate number of last year's

suicides. The deaths seemed to reawaken community

anxieties around the subject. Although the young girl's

family said publicly that she hadn't meant to kill

herself, the statement failed to temper concern among

other parents. Politicians were again calling for action,

schools were on alert to the possible impact on pupils,

and counsellors and local suicide support groups appeared

in the area's housing estates offering assistance to

worried families.

There is an understandable reticence to speculate as to

why suicide rates have gone up so sharply in the past

decade. Experts caution against over-simplification of

what is a complex act. Nevertheless, there are a number of

possible explanations for the upwards trajectory in

Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK, where

rates have remained relatively static over the same time

frame.

Theories being mooted within Northern Ireland include the

long-term impact of entrenched deprivation in some

communities when coupled with issues of identity in a

"post-conflict" society and the legacy of the Troubles for

some of the younger generation of men and boys.

Platt, Samaritans'

trustee and professor of health policy research at the

University of Edinburgh, says: "The suicide rate in

Northern Ireland appears to have increased after the end

of the period known as the Troubles. Previous studies have

shown that suicides decrease during periods of war because

people feel a sense of integration in their communities

while uniting against an adversary. When war ends, this

feeling falls away to the detriment of mental health.

"Suicide rates can also be affected by a number of

different things including recession, rising unemployment,

budget cuts and other social factors."

Grassroots campaigners argue that politicians failed to

intervene early on with robust suicide prevention

initiatives when signs of a rise in the suicide rate were

emerging. Heading, an SDLP politician and deputy

mayor of Lisburn, who knows the Twinbrook and Colin areas

well, argues that without investment in jobs for local

youngsters (youth unemployment is as high as 35% in some

parts of west Belfast), the prevailing sense of

hopelessness they feel will persist, he says. "Many young

people need to feel there's some future. Sometimes, by the

age of 21, they already feel like there is nothing good

ahead of them."

Consultant psychiatrist Philip McGarry contends that

there are a number of important aspects of suicide to be

considered in the Northern Ireland context, including the

legacy of the Troubles. While some people are mystified

that suicide rates have risen since the Good Friday

agreement was signed, McGarry harbours no such bemusement.

That paramilitary violence remained a feature of

working-class communities such as west and north Belfast

"long after" the agreement was signed, and that so many

young men in those areas have mental health problems as a

result, he says, is no coincidence.

Jim Weir of Fasa, a community organisation based on the

Shankill Road, which focuses on substance misuse,

self-harm and suicide, works mainly with young men aged

between 11 and 25. Like McGarry, Weir believes it is a

misnomer that the peace process suddenly resolved

deep-rooted issues. "A lot of young men have issues around

identity. They have complex problems and sometimes alcohol

or drugs make it worse."

What is clear is that even after a decade of rising rates

of suicide there remains uncertainty about how to reduce

them. What local families want above all, though, is a

sense that the problem is a priority and is being tackled.

"When [our group] had its very first meeting there was a

lot of anger in the room, but people didn't know where to

direct it. Families felt as if the authorities weren't

taking the problem seriously enough," says Creaney,

co-founder and director of the voluntary organisation, the

Suicide Awareness and Support Group, based in west

Belfast.

Recent research conducted on behalf of the PHA among

young men who had attempted suicide and survived,

concluded that there was a clear need for more "proactive

outreach" approaches to suicide prevention. It also

recommended that more be done to make young men aware of

the type of advice and assistance already available.

Black, an assistant director at the PHA, says that,

while overall numbers of suicides are low, the focus on

young people and the impact of their deaths on the

tightknit communities that typify deprived areas can be

profound. If the media coverage is sensationalist or

distorted, Black says, it can make a sensitive situation

even worse.

Along with historic underinvestment in mental health

services, this partly explains, she suggests, why

"grassroots" suicide prevention groups – often spearheaded

by bereaved parents – have sprung up across Northern

Ireland over the past decade. Such groups, she says, have

helped drive reforms that culminated in the implementation

of a province-wide suicide prevention strategy in 2006,

known as Protect Life, and other initiatives including a

24/7 telephone helpline. "This came from within

communities," Black says. "There were services available,

but people weren't necessarily aware of them."

Minister for health in the devolved government,

McGimpsey, says that as well as extending the Protect Life

strategy to 2013, in response to rising suicide rates,

there is agreement that politicians need to think more

"innovatively" about the issue. A number of "intermediate"

responses are on the table too, he says, amid fears that

the economic downturn could "place added pressure on

vulnerable people". These include the development of

community response plans to tackle suspected suicide

"clusters".

But Philip McTaggart, who set up the community-based

suicide prevention and support group, Pips Programmes,

when his 17-year-old son killed himself in 2003, is more

stridently critical of progress to date on either

prevention or support for vulnerable youngsters. He says

that while there might be a strategy in place, it is "far

from" sufficient. "People in the statutory sector see it

as a nine-to-five job," he says. "They say they have a

strategy, but that's not what I see out on the street.

Communities are still firefighting on this."

Black cautions that while more is now being done, a

concerted approach "in partnership with communities" is

imperative. One of the many difficult messages to get

across, however, is that change will not come quickly.

"People want a simple solution, understandably," she says.

"But there is no simple solution. We need to take a

long-term view. It requires action over a long time."

Samaritans UK Helpline:

08457 909090

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/16/suicide-rates-northern-ireland?CMP=twt_gu

[Guest guest]

I wonder what the correlation is with the rise of

antidepressant prescriptions...

On 3/16/2011 4:34 AM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Sharp increase in suicide rates in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish

suicide rates have risen by an alarming 64% in the last decade.

O'Hara reports on how communities are

taking action

Share

Comments

(0)

O'Hara

The Guardian, Wednesday 16 March

2011

Article

history

Some

families felt the authorities weren't taking the problem

of rising suicides seriously enough, says Creaney,

director of the Suicide Awareness and Support Group.

Photograph: McErlane

In autumn 2010, during a visit

to my home town of Belfast, one topic was dominating

public conversation: suicide. Over a short period of time,

a number of young people in the city

had killed themselves, and the deaths seemed to be having

a striking effect within communities. In shops, at

bus stops and in bars, people could be heard ruminating on

why the suicides had occurred. They wanted to know what

health authorities and politicians were going to do about

what appeared to be an escalating and serious problem.

Local newspapers splashed on the deaths, while

politicians, including west Belfast MP and leader of Sinn

Féin, Gerry , declared the situation a "crisis" and

vowed to act. A friend of mine articulated a commonly

expressed sentiment: "Why is there so much money being

spent on road safety when more youngsters are killed by

suicide than on the roads?"

Suicide rates have been rising

markedly in Northern Ireland over the

past decade. According to the Public Health Agency (PHA),

after a period of relatively static figures in the latter

half of the last century, between 1999 and 2008 rates of

suicide in Northern Ireland increased by 64%. Most of the

rise was attributable to young men in the 15 to 34 age

group. A large proportion was concentrated in

disadvantaged areas and, in particular, north and west

Belfast. In 2002, 76% of all suicides in Northern Ireland

were male, and 60% were between 15 and 34 years old. By

2008, the latest year for which a reliable breakdown of

the statistics is available, 77% of suicides were male,

but the proportion aged between 15 and 34 had risen to

72%. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable but,

according to data collated by the PHA, the number of

deaths registered as suicides last year looks set to

exceed the 260 identified in 2009.

For a while it looked as though the issue had faded from

view – until last month, when the alleged suicides in a

single month of two children (a 13-year-old boy and an

11-year-old girl) captured the local media's attention.

Both were from the Twinbrook and Colin districts of west

Belfast, one of the most deprived parts of the city and

one that had seen a disproportionate number of last year's

suicides. The deaths seemed to reawaken community

anxieties around the subject. Although the young girl's

family said publicly that she hadn't meant to kill

herself, the statement failed to temper concern among

other parents. Politicians were again calling for action,

schools were on alert to the possible impact on pupils,

and counsellors and local suicide support groups appeared

in the area's housing estates offering assistance to

worried families.

There is an understandable reticence to speculate as to

why suicide rates have gone up so sharply in the past

decade. Experts caution against over-simplification of

what is a complex act. Nevertheless, there are a number of

possible explanations for the upwards trajectory in

Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK, where

rates have remained relatively static over the same time

frame.

Theories being mooted within Northern Ireland include the

long-term impact of entrenched deprivation in some

communities when coupled with issues of identity in a

"post-conflict" society and the legacy of the Troubles for

some of the younger generation of men and boys.

Platt, Samaritans'

trustee and professor of health policy research at the

University of Edinburgh, says: "The suicide rate in

Northern Ireland appears to have increased after the end

of the period known as the Troubles. Previous studies have

shown that suicides decrease during periods of war because

people feel a sense of integration in their communities

while uniting against an adversary. When war ends, this

feeling falls away to the detriment of mental health.

"Suicide rates can also be affected by a number of

different things including recession, rising unemployment,

budget cuts and other social factors."

Grassroots campaigners argue that politicians failed to

intervene early on with robust suicide prevention

initiatives when signs of a rise in the suicide rate were

emerging. Heading, an SDLP politician and deputy

mayor of Lisburn, who knows the Twinbrook and Colin areas

well, argues that without investment in jobs for local

youngsters (youth unemployment is as high as 35% in some

parts of west Belfast), the prevailing sense of

hopelessness they feel will persist, he says. "Many young

people need to feel there's some future. Sometimes, by the

age of 21, they already feel like there is nothing good

ahead of them."

Consultant psychiatrist Philip McGarry contends that

there are a number of important aspects of suicide to be

considered in the Northern Ireland context, including the

legacy of the Troubles. While some people are mystified

that suicide rates have risen since the Good Friday

agreement was signed, McGarry harbours no such bemusement.

That paramilitary violence remained a feature of

working-class communities such as west and north Belfast

"long after" the agreement was signed, and that so many

young men in those areas have mental health problems as a

result, he says, is no coincidence.

Jim Weir of Fasa, a community organisation based on the

Shankill Road, which focuses on substance misuse,

self-harm and suicide, works mainly with young men aged

between 11 and 25. Like McGarry, Weir believes it is a

misnomer that the peace process suddenly resolved

deep-rooted issues. "A lot of young men have issues around

identity. They have complex problems and sometimes alcohol

or drugs make it worse."

What is clear is that even after a decade of rising rates

of suicide there remains uncertainty about how to reduce

them. What local families want above all, though, is a

sense that the problem is a priority and is being tackled.

"When [our group] had its very first meeting there was a

lot of anger in the room, but people didn't know where to

direct it. Families felt as if the authorities weren't

taking the problem seriously enough," says Creaney,

co-founder and director of the voluntary organisation, the

Suicide Awareness and Support Group, based in west

Belfast.

Recent research conducted on behalf of the PHA among

young men who had attempted suicide and survived,

concluded that there was a clear need for more "proactive

outreach" approaches to suicide prevention. It also

recommended that more be done to make young men aware of

the type of advice and assistance already available.

Black, an assistant director at the PHA, says that,

while overall numbers of suicides are low, the focus on

young people and the impact of their deaths on the

tightknit communities that typify deprived areas can be

profound. If the media coverage is sensationalist or

distorted, Black says, it can make a sensitive situation

even worse.

Along with historic underinvestment in mental health

services, this partly explains, she suggests, why

"grassroots" suicide prevention groups – often spearheaded

by bereaved parents – have sprung up across Northern

Ireland over the past decade. Such groups, she says, have

helped drive reforms that culminated in the implementation

of a province-wide suicide prevention strategy in 2006,

known as Protect Life, and other initiatives including a

24/7 telephone helpline. "This came from within

communities," Black says. "There were services available,

but people weren't necessarily aware of them."

Minister for health in the devolved government,

McGimpsey, says that as well as extending the Protect Life

strategy to 2013, in response to rising suicide rates,

there is agreement that politicians need to think more

"innovatively" about the issue. A number of "intermediate"

responses are on the table too, he says, amid fears that

the economic downturn could "place added pressure on

vulnerable people". These include the development of

community response plans to tackle suspected suicide

"clusters".

But Philip McTaggart, who set up the community-based

suicide prevention and support group, Pips Programmes,

when his 17-year-old son killed himself in 2003, is more

stridently critical of progress to date on either

prevention or support for vulnerable youngsters. He says

that while there might be a strategy in place, it is "far

from" sufficient. "People in the statutory sector see it

as a nine-to-five job," he says. "They say they have a

strategy, but that's not what I see out on the street.

Communities are still firefighting on this."

Black cautions that while more is now being done, a

concerted approach "in partnership with communities" is

imperative. One of the many difficult messages to get

across, however, is that change will not come quickly.

"People want a simple solution, understandably," she says.

"But there is no simple solution. We need to take a

long-term view. It requires action over a long time."

Samaritans UK Helpline:

08457 909090

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/16/suicide-rates-northern-ireland?CMP=twt_gu

[Guest guest]

I wonder what the correlation is with the rise of

antidepressant prescriptions...

On 3/16/2011 4:34 AM, jeremy9282 wrote:

Sharp increase in suicide rates in Northern Ireland

Northern Irish

suicide rates have risen by an alarming 64% in the last decade.

O'Hara reports on how communities are

taking action

Share

Comments

(0)

O'Hara

The Guardian, Wednesday 16 March

2011

Article

history

Some

families felt the authorities weren't taking the problem

of rising suicides seriously enough, says Creaney,

director of the Suicide Awareness and Support Group.

Photograph: McErlane

In autumn 2010, during a visit

to my home town of Belfast, one topic was dominating

public conversation: suicide. Over a short period of time,

a number of young people in the city

had killed themselves, and the deaths seemed to be having

a striking effect within communities. In shops, at

bus stops and in bars, people could be heard ruminating on

why the suicides had occurred. They wanted to know what

health authorities and politicians were going to do about

what appeared to be an escalating and serious problem.

Local newspapers splashed on the deaths, while

politicians, including west Belfast MP and leader of Sinn

Féin, Gerry , declared the situation a "crisis" and

vowed to act. A friend of mine articulated a commonly

expressed sentiment: "Why is there so much money being

spent on road safety when more youngsters are killed by

suicide than on the roads?"

Suicide rates have been rising

markedly in Northern Ireland over the

past decade. According to the Public Health Agency (PHA),

after a period of relatively static figures in the latter

half of the last century, between 1999 and 2008 rates of

suicide in Northern Ireland increased by 64%. Most of the

rise was attributable to young men in the 15 to 34 age

group. A large proportion was concentrated in

disadvantaged areas and, in particular, north and west

Belfast. In 2002, 76% of all suicides in Northern Ireland

were male, and 60% were between 15 and 34 years old. By

2008, the latest year for which a reliable breakdown of

the statistics is available, 77% of suicides were male,

but the proportion aged between 15 and 34 had risen to

72%. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable but,

according to data collated by the PHA, the number of

deaths registered as suicides last year looks set to

exceed the 260 identified in 2009.

For a while it looked as though the issue had faded from

view – until last month, when the alleged suicides in a

single month of two children (a 13-year-old boy and an

11-year-old girl) captured the local media's attention.

Both were from the Twinbrook and Colin districts of west

Belfast, one of the most deprived parts of the city and

one that had seen a disproportionate number of last year's

suicides. The deaths seemed to reawaken community

anxieties around the subject. Although the young girl's

family said publicly that she hadn't meant to kill

herself, the statement failed to temper concern among

other parents. Politicians were again calling for action,

schools were on alert to the possible impact on pupils,

and counsellors and local suicide support groups appeared

in the area's housing estates offering assistance to

worried families.

There is an understandable reticence to speculate as to

why suicide rates have gone up so sharply in the past

decade. Experts caution against over-simplification of

what is a complex act. Nevertheless, there are a number of

possible explanations for the upwards trajectory in

Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK, where

rates have remained relatively static over the same time

frame.

Theories being mooted within Northern Ireland include the

long-term impact of entrenched deprivation in some

communities when coupled with issues of identity in a

"post-conflict" society and the legacy of the Troubles for

some of the younger generation of men and boys.

Platt, Samaritans'

trustee and professor of health policy research at the

University of Edinburgh, says: "The suicide rate in

Northern Ireland appears to have increased after the end

of the period known as the Troubles. Previous studies have

shown that suicides decrease during periods of war because

people feel a sense of integration in their communities

while uniting against an adversary. When war ends, this

feeling falls away to the detriment of mental health.

"Suicide rates can also be affected by a number of

different things including recession, rising unemployment,

budget cuts and other social factors."

Grassroots campaigners argue that politicians failed to

intervene early on with robust suicide prevention

initiatives when signs of a rise in the suicide rate were

emerging. Heading, an SDLP politician and deputy

mayor of Lisburn, who knows the Twinbrook and Colin areas

well, argues that without investment in jobs for local

youngsters (youth unemployment is as high as 35% in some

parts of west Belfast), the prevailing sense of

hopelessness they feel will persist, he says. "Many young

people need to feel there's some future. Sometimes, by the

age of 21, they already feel like there is nothing good

ahead of them."

Consultant psychiatrist Philip McGarry contends that

there are a number of important aspects of suicide to be

considered in the Northern Ireland context, including the

legacy of the Troubles. While some people are mystified

that suicide rates have risen since the Good Friday

agreement was signed, McGarry harbours no such bemusement.

That paramilitary violence remained a feature of

working-class communities such as west and north Belfast

"long after" the agreement was signed, and that so many

young men in those areas have mental health problems as a

result, he says, is no coincidence.

Jim Weir of Fasa, a community organisation based on the

Shankill Road, which focuses on substance misuse,

self-harm and suicide, works mainly with young men aged

between 11 and 25. Like McGarry, Weir believes it is a

misnomer that the peace process suddenly resolved

deep-rooted issues. "A lot of young men have issues around

identity. They have complex problems and sometimes alcohol

or drugs make it worse."

What is clear is that even after a decade of rising rates

of suicide there remains uncertainty about how to reduce

them. What local families want above all, though, is a

sense that the problem is a priority and is being tackled.

"When [our group] had its very first meeting there was a

lot of anger in the room, but people didn't know where to

direct it. Families felt as if the authorities weren't

taking the problem seriously enough," says Creaney,

co-founder and director of the voluntary organisation, the

Suicide Awareness and Support Group, based in west

Belfast.

Recent research conducted on behalf of the PHA among

young men who had attempted suicide and survived,

concluded that there was a clear need for more "proactive

outreach" approaches to suicide prevention. It also

recommended that more be done to make young men aware of

the type of advice and assistance already available.

Black, an assistant director at the PHA, says that,

while overall numbers of suicides are low, the focus on

young people and the impact of their deaths on the

tightknit communities that typify deprived areas can be

profound. If the media coverage is sensationalist or

distorted, Black says, it can make a sensitive situation

even worse.

Along with historic underinvestment in mental health

services, this partly explains, she suggests, why

"grassroots" suicide prevention groups – often spearheaded

by bereaved parents – have sprung up across Northern

Ireland over the past decade. Such groups, she says, have

helped drive reforms that culminated in the implementation

of a province-wide suicide prevention strategy in 2006,

known as Protect Life, and other initiatives including a

24/7 telephone helpline. "This came from within

communities," Black says. "There were services available,

but people weren't necessarily aware of them."

Minister for health in the devolved government,

McGimpsey, says that as well as extending the Protect Life

strategy to 2013, in response to rising suicide rates,

there is agreement that politicians need to think more

"innovatively" about the issue. A number of "intermediate"

responses are on the table too, he says, amid fears that

the economic downturn could "place added pressure on

vulnerable people". These include the development of

community response plans to tackle suspected suicide

"clusters".

But Philip McTaggart, who set up the community-based

suicide prevention and support group, Pips Programmes,

when his 17-year-old son killed himself in 2003, is more

stridently critical of progress to date on either

prevention or support for vulnerable youngsters. He says

that while there might be a strategy in place, it is "far

from" sufficient. "People in the statutory sector see it

as a nine-to-five job," he says. "They say they have a

strategy, but that's not what I see out on the street.

Communities are still firefighting on this."

Black cautions that while more is now being done, a

concerted approach "in partnership with communities" is

imperative. One of the many difficult messages to get

across, however, is that change will not come quickly.

"People want a simple solution, understandably," she says.

"But there is no simple solution. We need to take a

long-term view. It requires action over a long time."

Samaritans UK Helpline:

08457 909090

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/mar/16/suicide-rates-northern-ireland?CMP=twt_gu