Suicide debate highlights mental health

SEANAD:YOUNG PEOPLE need to develop "mental health resilience" to cope with the challenges of life, Senator Martin McAleese (Independent) has said.

Speaking on a debate about suicide prevention, he said “none of us have the answers or indeed the right questions as we struggle to confront the challenges” of suicide.

Mr McAleese, whose wife, former president Mary McAleese, did much to highlight the issue of suicide, suggested that equal importance be placed on the development of mental health, and the challenge was to show young people what that really meant.

The question to be asked was whether many people feared speaking out about their mental illness for fear of letting their family down or causing shame and embarrassment? “Unfortunately, as long as a sense of stigma endures around mental illness, in some cases the answer to some of these questions may sadly be yes.”

He suggested that preventive measures should include assisting young people to strengthen their mental health by believing in their innate resilience.

It was also important for society to regard emotional distress and mental suffering as a “very real part of many people’s lives”.

Katherine Zappone (Independent) said she empathised with the experiences of a person now in their 20s who thought about ending their lives as a result of homophobic bullying.

“While I did not experience overt bullying, I often felt shame, shame for my feelings, shame for my actions, shame for who I was discovering myself to be.

“What I know now is that shame is never generated from within. It develops as others who are not like you suspect that your difference is deviant and therefore treat you as inferior.”

She urged Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to address the issue “square on” of homophobic bullying and the Catholic ethos in most schools.

She maintained there was a “blatant contradiction” between efforts to implement guidelines to prevent bullying of young people with the Catholic ethos of schools.

She quoted Pope Benedict XVI on the issue of gay marriage that those who support the “legitimisation of specific rights for cohabiting homosexual persons need to be reminded that the legalisation of evil is something far different than the toleration of evil”.

She quoted figures which suggested that half of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people have considered taking their lives at some stage.

Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fáil) questioned whether members of the Oireachtas had any understanding of mental illness.

He cited a Millward Brown poll which showed that 60 per cent of Oireachtas members believed that people with mental health issues should not have children.

“That’s a shocking thing from the representatives of the people. If we have this level of stigmatisation, how could we even begin to offer assistance?”

He criticised the provision of €9 million for suicide prevention while the Road Safety Authority got €32 million yet many more people take their own lives than die on the road.

Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Kathleen Lynch said Irish society had “no choice” but to confront the issue of suicide. The Government was providing an extra €1 million to allow the HSE to focus on further developing skills-based training and awareness programmes in suicide prevention.