wexford tragedy

InFront wrote:

Suicide gets far less coverage, why? If we know the stigma is undeserved, why do we invest in it?

I suppose there is concern that the families of those who have taken their own lives will have to deal with the added trauma of their loved one's very personal and private situation being in the press.
InFront, I would have shared your exact sentiments up to last year when a 25-year-old guy from where I grew up, committed suicide. The fact that I knew him and know his family changed my perspective. Because of his sports involvement, he was relatively known, and there were a couple of pieces in the evening paper in Cork about him. And I just thought it seemed the best way to handle it, because it would have been weird if the paper actually mentioned that he had taken his own life. But prior to this, I was of the view that suicide will continue to be a stigma if the papers don't report on it, or use euphemisms - eg the "single vehicle" crash phenomenon.
On reflection though, I actually don't think suicide is necessarily a stigma any more - in the way that there was such shame attached to it in Ireland of old.
No, I think incidents are not being reported simply out of respect for the families.

I do wonder why there appears to be a geographical pattern to suicides in Ireland. For example, as nlgbbbblth mentioned, a frightening recent number in New Ross.
Midleton and Macroom in Cork are apparently blackspots too.

I'm horrified by all the tragedies to have hit Wexford in recent years - this case, the Sharon Grace case, the Evelyn Joel case. And the trawler tragedies. It's so much for a community to have to deal with.

there seems to me to have been one glaring omission in the litany of those contacted regarding this family- doctors, or more specifically, psychiatrists. why didnt the guards ring a GP, caredoc, or the local psych unit?? i think the poor priest is being unfairly scapegoated in all this, after all hes not trained to assess peoples mental state. there has been a lot of talk over the last few days about the gardai's power to invoke section 12 of the childcare act and remove the children freom the home. however, i havent heard anyone say that the guards can also use the mental health act to have someone assessed by a psychiatrist.all the guards have to do is fill in a form, then they have the authority to have that person assessed by a GP AND then brought to a psychiatric unit and assessed by a consultant psychiatrist, and if the psychiatrist agrees that the person is a danger to themselves or others, they can then be detained against their will.

now, I am a psychiatrist and ive worked in many units throughout the country, both in urban and rural areas. the first thing i'd like to point out is that psychiatric units provide 24 hr cover, and while obviously we'd prefer that people have a referral from a gp, to prevent abuse of the service, if someone turns up without a referral they are not going to be turned away. so while social workers may only do mon to fri 9 to 5, there still are services who provide assessment and treatment 24/7.

Secondly, ive had personal experience of guards bringing all sorts of muppets to psych units for assessment using the mental health act. now i know the cops arent trained in psychiatry, but you'd expect them to use some common sense, but often ive had the experience of being called to assess someone who was drunk and abusive and the cops were just trying to pawn them off on us. so if they make applications for these guys, why in the name of god did no cop think of getting this man and possibly the wife seen also???

the same thing struck me about sharon grace - again, while she was looking for the (non existant) out of hours social work service, why did nobody direct her towards the 24/7 psychiatric service?

I know someone is probably going to reply and say that not all general hospitals have psych units, but the reality is that the psychiatric services are geographically based, so that whatever your address you will have a designated unit. your gp should know where this is, or a quick call to a nearby unit will tell you pretty quickly where you should attend.

Maybe if the mental health act had been invoked, this tragedy could have been averted.

It actually does seem as if the man was the one running the family in this case. The woman sounds as if she was in the state of mind you get into if you're involved in a cult - outsiders are kept out, and you unquestioningly follow orders.

Dudess wrote:

No, I think incidents are not being reported simply out of respect for the families.

But why?

If someone dies in say, an industrial accident in a factory, their death will be reported as such.

We have a situation where newspapers are refusing to report or highlight suicides while simultaneously bemoaning the 'suicide crisis' in general articles. What crisis?

nlgbbbblth wrote:

But why?

If someone dies in say, an industrial accident in a factory, their death will be reported as such.

We have a situation where newspapers are refusing to report or highlight suicides while simultaneously bemoaning the 'suicide crisis' in general articles. What crisis?

Suicide is a very personal issue.

In Ireland we have a problem talking about it generally, and things like depression. We probably all know somebody who has killed themselves. We need to learn to talk about this, and depression and other such issues, among one another, rather than sweeping it under the carpet. Your son should be able to talk to you about feeling depressed, you should be able to talk to your wife or best friend about it, or your mother or father. Rather, we brush it off when it comes up in life, and sweep it under the carpet it death. The media has no part to play in people discussing their innermost selves, but it's a change we need to make as people one-to-one.