and reach thousands of daily visitors
18 AUGUST 2010
NO 1616
Suicide
The suicide rates, both internationally and in Ireland, are now a major public health problem. This is particularly so for young men, where there has been a four fold increase in the suicide rate in Ireland since 1990, making it the most common cause of death in young people (Suicide in Ireland: A National Report, 2001: 6).
Throughout the world the issue of suicide has been neglected but this can no longer continue to be the case. Each year 400,000 people in the world kill themselves. In many countries suicide ranks among the top ten causes of death in young people, exceeding accidents and cancer. Many countries underreport their number of suicide deaths and so the suicide figures are underestimated.
In Ireland there was a significant amount of underreporting as evident in the fall in the number of deaths explained as being of ‘undetermined cause’ from 119 in 1971 to 9 in 1995 (Aware, 1998).
Since the enactment of the Criminal Law (Suicide) Act 1993, suicide has been decriminalised. The Central Statistics Office is the body, which compiles statistics on the number of suicides and this is done on the basis of information presented by the Gardai. The National Task Force examined the recording of suicides, and it considered itself satisfied with the accuracy of the recording procedures, although it acknowledged that there may be an underestimation of less than 5% (Barnardos, 1999).
Papers prepared by the National Suicide foundation have examined the rates of suicide in different parts of the country between 1976 and 1994/95. Somewhat surprisingly, the analyses have shown that the male suicide rate in Dublin remained steady while the national male rate has more than doubled. They note, "The rise in suicide has been shown to be a rural rather than an urban phenomenon, a male rather than a female phenomenon affecting the young..." (Bamardos: Responding to Youth Suicide and Attempted Youth Suicide in Ireland, 1999: 8).
There is need for serious research to be undertaken as to the reasons for this change. There is also concern regarding the adequacy of services to address the serious problems that have arisen. In light of these major concerns the following objectives were formulated to guide the study. It was decided to focus on an examination of the current service providers and their polices as well as on the views of the “at risk category" about their using or obtaining help from these services. Such a study could then identify gaps in the system and suggest ways in which these gaps might be addressed.
____
Click here to see a previous quote by the same authors: Young men and suicide
LOUISE BUTLER AND JIM PHELAN
Butler, L and Phelan, J. (2005). Perceptions regarding
male suicide and preventative services in Co. Kilkenny. Irish Journal of
Applied Social Sciences, 6, 1. pp. 58-59.
REFERENCES
Aware. (1998). Suicide in Ireland. Dublin. Aware Publications.
Barnardos (1999). Responding to Youth Suicide and Attempted Youth Suicide in Ireland. Dublin. Barnardos.
