GOVERNMENT AIMS to reduce the number of people taking their own lives are being undermined by a lack of resources for suicide prevention strategies, campaigners have warned.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Association of Suicidology, consultant psychiatrist Dr Siobhán Barry told delegates that 10 times more funding goes towards preventing road deaths than helping to prevent suicide.
Last year almost €40 million was invested in road safety strategies, while just €4.5 million was spent on suicide prevention.
Dr Barry questioned whether decision makers place a greater value on preventing road deaths, or whether the stigma surrounding mental health means that suicide prevention is not getting the funds it needs.
She also said the target set out in Reach Out - the national suicide prevention strategy - of reducing the number of suicides by 10 per cent by 2012 lacked detail.
Speaking following the weekend conference, president of the Irish Association of Suicidology and Fine Gael TD Dan Neville called for greater steps to improve prevention services.
He said that all too often families of those at risk of suicide or who have attempted to harm themselves are excluded or ignored by health professionals.
"This is something I am coming across regularly: families who are not involved in any way in a patient's recovery plans. These family members have an important role to play, yet many are not advised on how to deal with someone in crisis," he said.
The conference also heard that the number of people who took their own lives in Ireland increased by 12 per cent last year to 460. Figures also show Ireland continues to have the fifth-highest rate of suicide in Europe among young men aged 15-24.
Men under 35 account for 40 per cent of all suicides. In all, the number of men who take their lives is four times that of women.
Figures from the National Registry of Deliberate Self Harm show that a total of 8,600 people presented to hospital last year in 11,100 incidents of deliberate self-harm - a rise of 2 per cent.