Suicide and suicidal behaviour is now “a serious social health issue” that the Government must respond to, Fine Gael said today.
The party’s spokesman on mental health, Dan Neville, who is also president of the Irish Association of Suicidology said the necessary services must be put in place to deal with the problem.
Since 2007, the Irish unemployment rate has more than tripled and the annual suicide rate rose by 24 per cent last year. The increase may, however, partly reflect a change in methodology used by the Central Statistics Office in recording deaths.
“Research going back to the 1890s demonstrates that suicide and mental illness increases at times of recession, and that suicide is linked to financial disasters. It should not come as any surprise that we are continuing to see more stresses, suicides and mental disorders,” Mr Neville said.
“People who are unemployed are two to three times more likely to die by suicide than those in employment,” he said. “This high rate is partly because people with psychiatric illnesses are at a greater risk of losing their jobs. There is an association between unemployment and suicide.”
However, even among people with no record of serious mental illness, unemployment was associated with a 70 per cent greater suicide risk, according to World Health Organisation figures.
Mr Neville said the potential psychological impact of economic recession on public health was “severe”.
“Job insecurity is associated with a 33 per cent greater risk of common mental disorders, mainly anxiety and depression,” Mr Neville said.
“People with mental disorder are more likely to be in debt than those who have no mental disorder.”
He said one US research document indicated that a loss of income rather than low income was associated with suicidal ideation. And in Hong Kong, 24 per cent of all suicides in 2004 concerned people in debt.
The Limerick West TD said alcohol consumption rises during recessions and this also correlated with suicide.
“The figure for the 1990s in this country was a 44 per cent increase in alcohol consumption and a 41 per cent increase in suicide.”
Mr Neville welcomed an additional allocation of €1 million by Minister of State with responsibility for mental health, John Moloney, for the National Office of Suicide Prevention this year. But he said extra resources were necessary.
“I put it to the Minister that in times of recession there is a need for the State to respond to this problem. A little over €3 million has been given to the National Office for Suicide Prevention. We cannot put a price on our citizens’ lives.”
Fine Gael and Labour had proposed that the overall annual budget for the National Office for Suicide Prevention ultimately be increased to €10 million per annum, Mr Neville said. The two parties published a joint policy document on mental health in advance of the 2007 general election.
“Suicide and mental health are not being responded to because of the stigma attached to them,” he said. Families of those affected did not always want to go public and, as a result, the political system was not responding.
Suicide is one of the three leading causes of death worldwide for people between 15 and 45 years of age, according to the WHO. In Ireland last year, 527 deaths by suicide were recorded and most were males in that age group.
A study by David Stuckler and colleagues published in the medical journal The Lancet last year found that across 26 European Union countries, "rapid and large" increases in unemployment were associated with a significant increase in suicide rates.