Co-ordinators urged for men to tackle suicide

Almost five times more men than women died from suicide in the Republic, according to a new report on suicide.

A co-ordinator should be appointed in every health board to deal exclusively with delivering health services to men, one of the authors of the report has said.

Dr Declan Bedford, specialist in public health medicine with the North Eastern Health Board, presented the report, Suicide In Ireland: A National Study, in Dublin yesterday.

He said health services had become "very woman-oriented" and that the delivery of mental health services to men was of urgent concern.

"Men, especially young men, have got to be the key target group in any strategy for men's health," he said.

The report, which was commissioned by the chief executives of the health boards, confirms the high rates of suicide among young men, with 40 per cent of suicides recorded occurring in men under the age of 30.

Some 807 suicides were identified in the study, which included data from all the health boards during 1997 and 1998, except from the Eastern Health Board, where figures were only gathered in 1997.

Among the issues which must be addressed urgently, said Dr Bedford, was increasing access to primary- care services.

"This study showed that 36 per cent of females and 20 per cent of males saw their GP in the month before their death.

The general practitioner offers an enormously important point of contact and opportunity for people to disclose their problems."

He said there should be ongoing training for GPs on depression, mental health problems and suicide.

Young men must be encouraged to access their GP rather than "try to deal with their problems on their own", he said.

After-care service for people discharged from psychiatric care was "absolutely crucial", he said.

"The support services are very few once someone has been discharged. The study found that almost a quarter of the suicides were among people who had a known history of deliberate self- harm."

It was essential such people be given full follow-up services, whether this was through their GP or at an A&E department.

"The health boards could, quite easily, draw up a protocol that the mental health services, hospitals and GPs were in contact and co-ordinating their services."

Unemployment and rising levels of alcohol consumption were identified as risk factors.

"Particularly when you consider that during a time when the economy was doing so well, 28 per cent of those in the study had been unemployed," he said.

"Periods of economic crisis with growing unemployment can be associated with a rise in suicides, with higher rates among the unemployed."

There was an "urgent need" to address the use of alcohol in Irish society.

According to the report, over- use of alcohol "must have a deleterious effect on mental health and on the overall level of suicide in Ireland".

It calls for greater availability to counselling services, as well as limits on the availability of alcohol, and an increase in the price of alcohol.

"Both of these issues need to be addressed, regardless of how unpopular they may be in certain sections of the community," the report said.

There was a "huge increase" in what was being done to address the issue of suicide, said Dr Bedford, "but the steps take time to have an effect".