The rate of suicide has nearly doubled since 2004 in Northern Ireland and the new Executive is moving to deal with the issue, writes Dan Keenan
Thirty years of open conflict is continuing to haunt a generation in Northern Ireland who have only the vaguest memories of the blackest days of the Troubles.
Michael McGimpsey's health department has announced that last year the number of those taking their own lives rose alarmingly to 291, nearly double the averages recorded between 2000 and 2004.
Despite the ending of the conflict, the years of psychological stress associated with it continue to affect the population in general, and men under 35 in particular, who make up more than 40 per cent of the suicide total.
Mr McGimpsey this week announced the results of a survey carried out by Queen's University academics which uncovered a strong sense of mental well-being in Northern Ireland. However, it also pointed to an enduring degree of Troubles-related unhappiness and psychological distress running in parallel with the "feel-good" factor.
The research paper, The Trouble with Suicide, has been handed to the Suicide Strategy Implementation Body for consideration as the Executive considers its response to the spiralling rate of suicide.
There are new concerns about a tendency of those contemplating suicide to use the internet to co-ordinate "pacts", and the apparent emergence of copycat incidents of self-harm.
In the weeks before mid-June, three Co Armagh teenagers, all from the same school year, took their own lives. The third of the teenagers' deaths followed the case of two young men who took their own lives at Gortin lakes in Tyrone, apparently having met and organised their deaths in an internet chatroom.
Mr McGimpsey has already said he wants to talk to the companies behind such websites as Bebo and MySpace which are popular with hundreds of thousands of young people.
"One of the questions we have to ask is what responsibility are internet operators assuming in this, because the internet is being used widely as part of the contagion?" he said.
The research paper was commissioned by the Department of Health and was focused on the impact of the Troubles on the suicides rates. Unsurprisingly, it reports that the Troubles significantly affected suicide rates in the past. The shock lies in the enduring ability of the conflict to overshadow the lives of so many. With this in mind, it is suggested that more research is targeted on specific suicide causes.
Research suggests that trauma related to the Troubles continues to have a long-term detrimental effect on mental health.
It also found high levels of such trauma in areas badly affected by the Troubles and linked this to worrying rates of depression, self-harm and suicide locally.
The worst days of the Troubles served to overshadow the recording of suicide and limited public recognition of the problem.
"Suicide is an increasing problem in Northern Ireland, especially amongst our young people and I am committed to tackling this problem and giving it the attention it deserves," Mr McGimpsey said.