Suicide rate rose 15% during height of recession

The rate of suicide in Ireland rose 15 per cent during the height of the recession, with the increase accounted for mainly by more men taking their lives, a leading expert on suicide has revealed.

Professor Ella Arensman, director of research at the National Suicide Research Foundation, said surveillance data from the period 2004-2014 showed a clear spike in the number of suicides during the years, 2008 to 2010 inclusive, which coincided with the onset of the economic recession.

“I am convinced that during the recession we were dealing with a true increase in the suicide rate because the category of open verdicts also went up and these are cases where the coroner is not able on the basis of the available evidence to determine a suicide verdict beyond reasonable doubt.”

Prof Arensman said the profile of many of those men who took their own lives during the period 2008 to 2010 suggested they were people who were already experiencing mental health difficulties and the recession may have proven the critical factor.

“What we saw was a profile of the people with quite severe mental health issues, but, having lost their job, having lost their house, or having lost their relationship, so it was a combination of mental health vulnerability and social and economic factors,” she said.

“The other factor to bear in mind is that it was clearly difficult for people to access services – if you report on the recession, you have to report on the consequences of unemployment, but also on the consequences of austerity because it became more difficulty to access care and pay for medication.”

Prof Arensman, who is current president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, pointed out that the National Self Harm Registry showed that, during the same period at the height of the recession, self harm in Ireland rose by 30 per cent with the increase again notable in men.

“During this same period, male self harm when up by 30 per cent and I’ve been working a long time in this area and I have never seen a 30 per cent increase in the level of self harm in the space of just three years and a lot of these self harms were instigated by alcohol,” she said.

In an address at UCC entitled “Current Status of Suicide Prevention Internationally: Enhancing Suicide Prevention in Ireland”, Prof Arensman said that, notwithstanding the pioneering work of the National Self Harm Registry, Ireland still need to gather more data on self harm.

She pointed out that the information gathered by the National Self Harm Registry while highly valuable, represented only those who self-harm and present at hospital emergency departments and there was a dearth of data relating those who self-harm and are treated by GPs.

Surveillance work would suggest the number of people presenting with self harm injuries at emergency departments is around 11,000 per annum but extrapolations from a number of surveys would suggest that there are 60,000 cases a year that do not go through emergency departments.

“We need more data on the number of people who self harm and present to GP for treatment (but) there is sufficient evidence to suggest that some sort of training needs to be in place for GPs as well as those working in emergency departments,” she said.

Anyone affected by suicide can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or by email at jo@samaritans.org or Aware on 1800 804848 or the ISPCC Childline on 1800 666 666.