Five years ago an organisation, Turning the Tide (3Ts), was set up to try to do something about the high rate of suicides. Co-founder Noel Smyth talks to Colm Keena, Public Affairs Correspondent, about the issue
AT LEAST 600 people will die of suicide this year, with young men aged from 11 to 30 being the most at risk.
Solicitor and property developer Noel Smyth had his attention drawn to the ongoing tragedy of suicide in 1991 when his father-in-law, David, died after taking an overdose.
A manic depressive, he had tried previously to take his life and was 60 years old when he died.
"This can happen in my family. This can happen to anyone," says Smyth.
Five years ago he and Prof Kevin Malone decided to set up an organisation that would seek to try to do something about the problem.
"International literature indicates that a suicidal crisis can be brief, transient and the moment may pass or may respond to helpful expert intervention.
"The response to suicide in Ireland has been slow and continues to operate in a knowledge vacuum where many myths still surround the subject," says the 3Ts website.
The former taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, is a patron of the organisation and earlier this year it held a dinner in Dublin Castle attended by Ahern, Tony Blair, George Mitchell and Bono.
"We want to associate what we do with successful people," says Smyth. "We don't want to make people think that death by suicide is something to be ashamed of."
The best thing to do with friends who are grieving because a loved one died by suicide, says Smyth, is to talk to them about it. Avoiding the subject can prompt people to feel the unease about discussing the matter is related to a view that the person has something to be ashamed of.
"There is a huge guilt element for those left behind. The whole 'what if?' question."
Research being carried out by Malone is part of the organisation's focus on prevention. But Smyth believes new structures need to be put in place by the State.
He believes an authority should be established that would have oversight of the suicide issue, gathering information, organising training, and devising and implementing policy.
He says that "€20 million over the next four years could save literally hundreds of lives".
The key input he believes would come from the volunteers who run more than 500 organisations around the island that are concerned with suicide and its aftermath. These people, and the people they deal with, could benefit greatly from simple and inexpensive training, says Smyth.
"They are the cheapest labour you could find. They want to help and they live in the community."
If such people adopted some symbol so they became recognisable in the community, such as wearing a blue ribbon Smyth suggests, then people in distress would know who they could approach. But such community-based volunteers would have to be able to call in professional help promptly when they feel someone requires it.
Likewise, Smyth believes many of the professional groups that deal with suicide, such as the Garda, the various medical professions, and others, require training.
"More than 90 per cent of the medical profession have not been retrained in relation to suicide. We need to know who has what training. We need an audit."
The consultancy group, McKinseys, has offered to do such an audit at a charitable rate, says Smyth.
An authority akin to the Road Safety Authority should be set up. In order to create pressure on the Government, 3Ts has plans to use next year's local elections to raise the profile of the issue.
"If the Government will buy the package, then we can move forward," says Smyth.
He believes it is the changed nature of Irish society in recent years that has created the pressures and strains that, in turn, cause people to take their own lives.
The prominence of young men in the suicide statistics, he believes, may be caused by a "displacement" between what young men are brought up to believe their role is, and what they actually find when they do grow up.
There is a need, he says, to create an environment in which young men can feel they are allowed talk about their feelings and exhibit distress.
Consumerism, the deterioration of family life, affluence and pressures to grow up early are placing pressures on young people that their parents find difficult to understand, says Smyth.
"If we believe our greatest resource is our young people, then, in my opinion, we're doing a s***e job."
• Prof Kevin Malone, MD, MRCPI, MRCPsych, is head of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health Research at St Vincent's University Hospital / UCD and clinical investigator at the Conway Institute for Biomolecular & Biomedical Research, UCD