A GRASSROOTS campaign aimed at encouraging those who are feeling depressed or suicidal to seek help in a west Dublin community has led to a drop in the rate of deaths among young people, according to local activists.
Fr John Dunphy of Community Action on Suicide (CAS) in north Clondalkin said more people are now seeking help as a direct result of work in the community to tackle suicide. “More people are coming for help now than back in 2005,” he said. “The suicide numbers I would say are down, but there are still suicides. They are still happening. It’s not like they have vanished. And it’s not just Clondalkin. If you look at the national figures, every community is affected by it.”
The year 2005 was a black year for suicides in north Clondalkin, which includes Neilstown, Quarryvale and Rowlagh. In a 12-month period, nine young people, aged between 15 and 25 took their own lives, including seven men and two women.
A group of concerned locals decided something had to be done and CAS, which has representatives from all local statutory and voluntary bodies, was born. The group began working with local organisations, co-ordinating efforts to tackle the suicide problem.
The drive began with a programme of talks in local schools, now part of the annual school calendar, to raise awareness of the help available in the community, including local counselling services and Pieta House, a centre in Lucan for the prevention of self-harm or suicide, which opened at the end of 2005.
In May 2006 a local suicide awareness week was launched, (now also an annual event) which included a drama programme and a billboard and bus shelter campaign designed by local teenagers, which spread the message: “Suicide is not the answer – Talk to someone.”
Key-rings and wallet cards containing the names and numbers of local services were distributed to pubs in the locality, while Console, a support service for people in crisis and for those bereaved due to suicide, opened an office in the locality.
Meanwhile, Headstrong, the national centre for youth mental health is to open a mental health service for young people in Clondalkin as part of the Jigsaw project.
“We tried to make people aware of what was available . . . so they know they are not on their own . . . ,” said Fr Dunphy. “There is no way of proving any group has made a difference, but there is an openness [around] people being able to talk about their problems.”
“The mantra here is that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.”
There are perhaps lessons to be learned from this west Dublin community. While provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office for 2010 show a small decrease in the number of people who took their lives by suicide from 555 in 2009 to 486 in 2010, high rates of suicide, particularly among young men, are a concern nationwide.
Between 2005 and 2009 an average of 174 men aged between 15 and 34 years took their own lives each year, compared with an average of 39 women.
Debbie Scales of the Clondalkin, Palmerstown, Lucan and Newcastle local area partnership, which is a member of CAS, said that while it was not possible to say if the work of CAS had led to a drop in suicides in Clondalkin, young people are now more aware of the help available.
“I think other communities have something to learn from what CAS has done.”
“We are just ordinary people living and working in the community . . . supporting people to look for help and support . . . Suicide is an issue you can’t ignore because it’s so devastating for families.”
Clondalkin taxi-driver John Quinn, who lost his son Seán (17) to suicide in 2005, said that in his opinion the rate of suicide among young people in the community has come down “drastically” in the last 16 months or so.
“I think there are less people in our area dying from suicide and that’s because they are attending Pieta House,” he said.
Mr Quinn has become a point of contact for young people in the community who are in crisis and need someone to talk to. He attended 13 funerals due to suicide in 2005 and when his son died he felt he had to do something. “At his funeral I got up . . . I said to the young people, I said this pain is horrendous . . . I said if you are feeling down . . . just give me a ring or knock on my door. I did it because I didn’t want other families to be going through what we were going through . . .”
Helplines
For anyone in need of support help can be accessed from the Samaritans: 1850 609090; samaritans.org; dublinsamaritans.ie;
Console:1800 201 890 console.ie;
Pieta House:01-6010000 pieta.ie
Community Action on Suicide(CAS) at 01-4570665.