487 deaths by suicide recorded in 2013

The flying mouse · 14-10-2016 10:06am #1

New figures from the National Office for Suicide Prevention show that more than 450 people died by suicide in 2013.

80% of cases were among men and the high male to female rate has been a constant feature.

In its Annual Report for 2015, the NOSP says that confirmed figures from the Central Statistics Office indicate there were 487 deaths by suicide in 2013.

Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People Helen McEntee said suicide prevention is everyone's the concern and while she welcomed the stabilisation of suicide and self-harm rates, she said "every death is one too many".

Last year the Government launched a strategy to reduce suicides and Ms McEntee said it is committed to implementing Connecting for Life and reaching its 10% target for the reduction in suicide by 2020.

Samaritans ph 116 123
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Aware ph 1800 80 48 48

http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/1014/823939-suicide-report/

Mods I know this not a news dump but just posting to make people more aware, Not much I can say on the topic, only its a huge amount of mostly young people taking there own life's in Ireland. :-(

14-10-2016 10:15am

Men are three times more likely to commit suicide than women.

487 people are the number of known and acknowledged suicides. Given that many go unreported as such for various reasons, realistically that number is going to be a lot higher than is known.

Given that 80% are men, then this should be a predominantly male driven issue - targeted campaigns and awareness. We still live under the shadow of talking about emotions and seeking help is seen as being "weak" and that requiring emotional support makes you less capable.

mailforkev · 14-10-2016 10:36am

Luckily I have no personal losses via suicide but of the last three that I heard of, two were deffo not recorded as such for whatever reason.

So that figure is a nonsense in reality, the problem is way way bigger than many will admit I suspect.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 14-10-2016 10:36am

I do wonder if articles like this and others help play a part in the disproportionate amount of males who commit suicide?

Facebook's new guide sets out three lines of defence for women to make their Facebook profiles more secure...

That a topic such as online abuse (or more or less any issue) is a problem that women need to protect themselves from. And that it is't really a problem for men? (That is the tacit implication here)

I feel like you could have a megathread here and update it daily with articles about general problems that people encounter but for one reason or another are made out to be gender specific problems.

That feeds into general thinking.

I've been 'stalked' online, had to block the same person on my Facebook page a few times. And while it is in all probability a less intimidating thing to happen to a man, it is still quite an unnerving thing to happen to you.

14-10-2016 10:57am

Regarding the disproportionate amount of male v female suicide - one of the beliefs is the methods that both would use to achieve the act. When men attempt, it's usually methods that will result in their deaths - self-inflicted gun shots, car crashes, etc. etc., however classically women use methods that could potentially be saved from - overdoses and the like.

The flying mouse · 14-10-2016 11:15am

There is still a huge taboo about admitting/saying your friend/relation/sibling killed them selfs, I know of one young lad in Tallaght just last week committed suicide ,Know one knows why, other folks getting blamed,.. He posted on his Facebook page he was going to watch a match on TV with a few beers, next day he found dead by hanging.

ressem · 14-10-2016 12:12pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Given that 80% are men, then this should be a predominantly male driven issue - targeted campaigns and awareness. We still live under the shadow of talking about emotions and seeking help is seen as being "weak" and that requiring emotional support makes you less capable.

Is there a much higher proportion of young to middle-aged men that have no interaction whatsoever with the medical profession, and for whom the usual phrase in the ads, "talk to your GP" means nothing?

Surveys in other countries suggest that over all age groups women visit medical professional 3 times as frequently.

The Princess Bride · 14-10-2016 12:43pm

Until recently, I thankfully had no direct knowledge of anyone affected by suicide.

The number of young teenagers I've heard about in the past 2 months is crazy.
Children of 13/14. It's really hard to get my head around it.
So many questions for the families left behind and the terrible realisation that they'll never see their loved one again and that they'll never know the reason why they did what they did.

Devastating.

ChikiChiki · 14-10-2016 1:22pm

My local graveyard is full of suicide victims. If the numbers around here are reflective it's much higher than official numbers. As a child of suicide I think an advertising campaign focusing on the severe trauma left behind to family members for the rest of their lives could reduce some suicides. These people are loved, they just don't realise it in their darkest hour.

For every suicide victim there are multiples badly affected directly by it.

JupiterKid · 15-10-2016 1:55am

Thankfully suicide hasn't visited my immediate or wider family but I myself was quite suicidal several years back when I had a career crisis (bullied out of a very good job) and a relationship breakdown at the same time. I'm glad I didn't do more than contemplate topping myself but I did end up becoming an alcoholic for many years so it did affect me very badly.

When I was about 20 a 17 year old lad who lived a few doors up the road killed himself by gassing himself in his bedroom. His family was utterly devastated. The funeral was heartbreaking. For many years there was no headstone on his grave - I suppose his family weren't able to face doing that.

Suicide is like a disease - it ravages families and communities. And it is definitely under-reported. How many "accidental" car crashes, for instance, are really suicides but not reported/recorded as such?

Grayson · 15-10-2016 2:53am

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo wrote: »

I do wonder if articles like this and others help play a part in the disproportionate amount of males who commit suicide?

That a topic such as online abuse (or more or less any issue) is a problem that women need to protect themselves from. And that it is't really a problem for men? (That is the tacit implication here)

I feel like you could have a megathread here and update it daily with articles about general problems that people encounter but for one reason or another are made out to be gender specific problems.

That feeds into general thinking.

I've been 'stalked' online, had to block the same person on my Facebook page a few times. And while it is in all probability a less intimidating thing to happen to a man, it is still quite an unnerving thing to happen to you.

Online abuse for women is a problem. I used to work for an auction site and some of the messages that women got were weird. It's happened to friends too. I don't see how you can blame male suicide on women receiving abuse and facebook doing something about it.

Suicide does need to be talked about more openly.We do need to make sure that everyone has help available and knows there's no stigma attached to it.

We have made great strides recently. There's loads more people reaching out for problems like depression and anxiety. The publicity it gets compared to 20 years ago is great but we still have an aweful lot to do.

lawlolawl · 15-10-2016 8:33am

Irish society is ****ed in regard to how we handle suicide.

I've discussed it in similar threads before, but we give completely mixed messages to young people in particular.

On one hand we tell them it's ok to talk about felling depressed and whatnot but we as a society don't really give a **** and are just paying lip service. Young people who are in bad form a lot are usually shunned by their peers as a dry****e or a whinger or "hard work to be around". You are expected to be one of the lads and not bring a halt to the all encompassing 'craic' with your talk of how you feel your life is crap. We hold up examples of generic yung lad/yung wan as being the pinnacle of existence at this stage in someone life and ignore the rest.

If you don't have the exact same interests as other young people you may as well not exist in a lot of places. If you don't drink as a young person in rural Ireland there is **** all to do and you will be isolated from social interaction with people your age. The ridiculously high expectations of both young men and women in a potential partner doesn't help either.

Social media constantly bombarding people who are in a vulnerable position mentally doesn't help. Look at all your peers and friends out having a great time, look at all the people they know, look at all the places they go. Everyone wants to be them and everyone wants to be with them. This is a kick in the guts for some people.

A lot of this might seem trivial or not make sense to a lot people but from personal experience i know that we say one thing in Ireland about talking about depression and then go and do the exact opposite. In a lot of cases people are afraid to bother people with their problems because they are afraid of being seen as less than the idealized version of what someone their age/status/gender 'should ' be.

How many times have you heard about someone "suffering with their nerves"? That never leaves you in Irish peoples perceptions. I know people who've worn that label for decades.

I'm not even vaguely surprised our suicide figures are so high. This country is set up to completely ignore and/or stigmatize people who don't fit in.

ThinkProgress · 15-10-2016 9:04am

lawlolawl wrote: »

On one hand we tell them it's ok to talk about felling depressed and whatnot but we as a society don't really give a **** and are just paying lip service. Young people who are in bad form a lot are usually shunned by their peers as a dry****e or a whinger or "hard work to be around". You are expected to be one of the lads and not bring a halt to the all encompassing 'craic' with your talk of how you feel your life is crap. We hold up examples of generic yung lad/yung wan as being the pinnacle of existence at this stage in someone life and ignore the rest.

If you don't have the exact same interests as other young people you may as well not exist in a lot of places. If you don't drink as a young person in rural Ireland there is **** all to do and you will be isolated from social interaction with people your age. The ridiculously high expectations of both young men and women in a potential partner doesn't help either.

And talking about how you're feeling will only get you so far too. I'm speaking from experience here...

Like you said, there's a huge amount of lip service around mental health.

It's great that people are being encouraged to talk more, but we are very short on treatment, for men in particular, after that initial period when they admit they're in a bad place!

We need to dig deeper down to the root of the problems... No matter how awkward... And then come up with practical workable solutions to those specific issues!

Talking and opening up should only be the beginning. Unfortunately in this country, it's rarely followed up with anything worthwhile afterwards.

We need to view the mind more like how we view the body. Many people require a long rehabilitation process, with stages that have different characteristics... Just like a long physical rehabilitation program.

The patience required to build a person's mind back up, is huge... You can't just have a few sessions talking with a psychologist and then magically feel better!

487 deaths by suicide recorded in 2013

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