TEACHERS, PUBLIC representatives and suicide awareness groups have been discussing plans to curb suicide rates in west Belfast following the deaths of two children.
An 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy died in unconnected incidents within a 24-hour period, raising concerns that pressures leading even young children to consider suicide are building.
The boy died at the Royal Victoria Hospital in west Belfast last Thursday, while the girl, a pupil at St Louise’s College, was found dead at her home the next day.
The boy’s funeral was held yesterday in Twinbrook. Imelda Jordan, principal at St Colm’s School, where the teenager was a noted soccer player, said his family were “heartbroken and now need our prayers and the time and privacy to try to deal with their grief. He was a very popular boy with a large friendship group because of his outgoing and friendly personality,” she said. “Our pupils will continue to be supported through our pastoral systems as they come to terms with his loss. Specific support and counselling is available in school to any young person and we work closely with our parents in this regard. There are also a range of voluntary and statutory agencies working hard . . .”
Carmel McCartan, principal of St Louise’s, vowed to work closely with pupils, vowing the school community would “pull together”.
“We will continue to work closely with our pupils who have been affected by this terrible tragedy and we will provide ongoing support and counselling to them,” she said.
Philip McTaggart, who helps run an anti-suicide campaign across Belfast, said: “We have put in place a counsellor who works with young people aged four to 18. We have young people getting counselling . . . who are 10, who have lost parents to suicide. The message we have to get out to those people who are depressed, who are feeling down: there is a way through, and you can get through it.”
About a dozen young people in west Belfast have taken their own lives through suicide over the past year or so.
Sinn Féin president and outgoing MP Gerry Adams said the death toll from suicide was akin to that from road accidents. Following the death by suicide in October of 19-year-old boxing star Liam McGuinness, Mr Adams called for heightened awareness.
“If you look at the proper focus and profile that there is on the prevention of road accidents . . . we need to get the same priority into the provision of mental health and of suicide prevention,” he said.
“The more we can be alert about suicide, the more we can be able to listen and pick up the signs and encourage people to go and talk to someone. But when it comes down to it, the statutory provision, the service provision, obviously is not good enough.”