The Government is burying its head in the sand in relation to suicides by young people, according to a Dublin mother who has set up Teen Line, a free help line for Irish teenagers. The line was launched last night by Dublin's Lord Mayor, Vincent Jackson.
Maureen Bolger began campaigning for a help line aimed at young people after her 16-year-old son, Darren, took his life in April 2003.
Through discussions with some of Darren's friends, Ms Bolger said she realised that young people had little awareness of the issues relating to suicide and depression. She said that they occupied an awkward "in-between" space, feeling too old to call Childline and too young to contact the Samaritans.
In the early stages she had no intention of setting up Teen Line herself and had contacted a number of the major help lines about the possibility of establishing a help line aimed at the 14/17-year-old bracket.
"I even offered to do the fund-raising in some cases, but I was met with closed doors," she said.
Teen Line, which has been established after two years of fund-raising and will operate from Tallaght, has 35 trained volunteers on board, with another 30 waiting to be trained. Eircom has provided the free phone number the group is using.
Ms Bolger is calling on the Government to put awareness of depression and suicide on the curriculum rather than relying on schools to invite organisations to visit. "We have already been asked in by a few schools. In one, when we asked how many had thought about taking their own life, we could not count all the hands that shot up," she said.
In 2005, 80 people aged between 15 and 24 took their lives, and 69 of these were young males. "If that number of young people were killed in a plane crash it would be a national disaster. But suicide is the silent disaster happening in our own country," Ms Bolger added.
Teen Line will initially operate on Friday and Saturday nights from 9pm to 6am, with a view to developing into a round-the-clock help line. It can be reached by dialling 1800-833-634.