Lifting stigma and lending support

They have come together in tragic circumstances, but three Co Leitrim families are sending out a message of hope by spreading awareness about suicide and its consequences.

In the past four years three families within a few miles of the small Co Leitrim village of Dromahair have lost family members to suicide.

The Kerins lost their 27-year-old son Pat after he took his own life in November 2000. In January last year John McTernan and his wife Mary lost their eldest son, Gary (24). Five months later, parents Sean and Carmel Fallon were left devastated after their son Kevin Fallon (27) took his own life.

As the families supported and learned from each other, they began to see the inadequacies of the health service laid bare, along with widespread ignorance about suicide and depression.

"When Gary died I went over to his father John," says Cáit Wallace, a sister of Pat Kerins, who died four years ago. "I remember him saying to me that he didn't realise what we had gone through until he lost Gary. I could relate to them, they could relate to me. We were sitting there, talking about the need for more awareness. So we decided we'd set up our own group, to educate people and let others know they're not alone."

The result was a group called STOP - Suicide, Teach, Organise, Prevent - which held a major conference in Dromahair at the weekend. One of the benefits to already emerge from the campaign, set up just three months ago, is that it has helped lift the stigma which has suppressed discussion of suicide, says McTernan, who is a Fine Gael councillor. "Only 6 per cent of the health budget goes to suicide, but it claims more lives than car accidents - nearly 450 last year. But suicide remains hidden," he says.

The refusal to confront the issue of suicide is reflective of culture of hiding away the issue and not wanting to deal with it in the open, says Mary McTernan.

Following the huge interest in last weekend's conference, STOP hopes to set up a formal suicide support group in Co Leitrim. As well as this, the founders want to explore ways of reaching out to depressed people contemplating suicide.

STOP is in contact with other similar support groups throughout the country, including the Let's Get Together support group in Cork, Teenline in Tallaght, Dublin, and the Pips project in Belfast.

Cáit Wallace, meanwhile, is determined to continue the campaign and to let people who are feeling suicidal know that there is help available. "Encouraging people to talk is one of the main things," she says. "In order to do that we need more education and more awareness. We need everyone involved, especially the Government."