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Dublin: 19 °C Wednesday 19 June, 2013

Coroner calls for greater advertising of suicide helplines in pubs

Six out of eight cases at the Killarney coroner’s court today dealt with suicide – the highest number ever.

Image: kayaker1204 via Flickr/Creative Commons

A CORONER IN Kerry has called for the helpline numbers for support groups to be made more available during “stringent times” as suicide rates remain at an elevated level across the country.

Terence Casey’s remarks to TheJournal.ie came after a court sitting during which he heard six suicide cases.

He said it was the highest incidence of suicides ever in one sitting.

Out of the eight cases to come before the Killarney court today, six inquiries involved suicide of men in the area.

All were male but the ages varied from between 16 and 58, said Casey.

He explained that many suicides occur between the hours of 10pm and 7am and that if helpline numbers were highlighted during these times, more people may receive the help they need.

“There is help out there,” he said. “Just make a phone call.”

He suggested that helpline posters should be installed in public houses where younger people frequent at night.

The coroner has spoken out previously about the growing rates of suicide in rural areas. He said he will continue to highlight the issue as long as deaths keep happening.

To contact Samaritans, visit www.samaritans.ie or call 1850 60 90 90.

Pieta House is a free service and can be contacted at 01 601 0000 or mary@pieta.ie. It runs two centres of excellence in Limerick and Dublin, as well as two outreach centres.

Other helplines include TeenLine Ireland 1800 833 634, Console 1800 201 890 and Aware at 1890 303 302.

More: Major report explores reasons behind male suicide>

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Comments (12 Comments)

  • Trí 24/09/12 #

    Great Idea. Don’t know why it hasnt been done before.

    Reply
  • Why can’t Pieta house and other groups come together and design a poster., that people can just print from site and put up in local areas . No point sitting down and waiting on government . This is happening in your community so it’s your neighbours and friends that are dying, so you need to do your bit. Press print , most people have a printer . Community groups , youth groups etc can just print off a few. So please if some group can do this maybe we can teach more areas .

    Reply
    • Good idea! I’d push it further and say supermarkets, pubs, etc. should be approached and asked if they would allow a short message with a phone-number to be automatically printed on the end of every receipt. I can’t imagine this would be that difficult, the folks who service tills could add it when out on their rounds.

      Reply
    • Kay – great idea which I’ve passed in to Pieta House management…

      Reply
  • reds 24/09/12 #

    It’s about time, it’s being swept under the carpet for way too long now!

    Reply
  • This is what people don’t understand about the drink driving laws. Men in rural Ireland have no-one to talk to and nowhere to go and have a few drinks and a bit of company and blow off some steam. Even if they did there would be noone there as everyone drinks at home now in front of the Sky box.
    While I’m not saying this is the cause of their suicides, social isolation is almost certainly a contributing factor in some of these cases.

    Reply
  • I have lost 3 family members to suicide. 2 cousins and also my mother-in-law, it has such a devastating affect on the families left behind, anything that can be done to turn the tide on suicide can only be a good thing. At the moment I am trying to raise funds and awareness for Pieta House. In memory of my family members. We need more research and more funding in this area of mental health. It is becoming tio widespread.

    Reply
  • It might also be helpful for people to stop suggesting that men can’t talk about there feelings etc all this does is further embed a gender stereotype making it less likely for individuals to seek help!! Printing Posters are a great idea though !! fair play!!

    Reply
  • the govt hit mental health with cuts,infact they cut to charity org too,so dont think they will pay for this. go march on the dail for change.

    Reply
  • money so wont be done now either

    Reply

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