THE ASTI HOPES to produce a set of guidelines before Christmas which will help schools prepare for and cope with suicides. Over the coming weeks, the union will conduct a survey of the schools' responses to suicide and draw up its guidelines based on the results.

On a national level, teachers in Northern Ireland and the Republic will be asked through the union's monthly newsletter, ASTIR, to write in confidence to the union about their experiences and how they coped. Internationally, information will be gathered through Education International, a confederation of teachers' unions around the world - of which ASTI general secretary Charlie Lennon is an executive member.

The union, which represents 15,000 second-level teachers, has been asked by the National Task Force on Suicide to evaluate the procedures used in Irish schools and to compare them with those in other countries.

According to ASTI president John Mulcahy, an appropriate role for schools would be to develop existing support systems that enable students at risk to be identified and directed to the appropriate services, within or outside school.

"Teachers are most dissatisfied with the inadequate resources being provided to the schools' psychological services," he says. "The present ratio is one psychologist for every 18,000 postprimary students.

Suicide is the second most common cause of death among young men in Ireland. It accounted for more than one in five deaths in 1991-93 among men aged 15 to 24 Among young women, one in 13 deaths was attributed to suicide in the same period.

"These guidelines will be of help in dealing with the trauma of suicide in the student population," Mulcahy says.