Suicide support teams are to be made available to bereaved families and communities to help them cope with their trauma as part of a range of new services developed by the Southern Health Board.
More than 50 medical professionals and counsellors in Cork and Kerry have trained to be part of the teams which will offer one-to-one sessions and group meetings wherever help is needed.
"The bereaved family are the obvious ones we think of, but the school, the factory, the football team can all be affected," a Southern Health Board spokeswoman, Ms Angie O'Brien, explained.
The service is one of several initiatives devised as the board's response to suicide in Cork and Kerry where, officially, 67 people took their own lives last year. The board believes the true number is higher and can be multiplied many times to reflect the number of suicide attempts.
A telephone helpline has been established, from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. nightly, on 1800 742 745.
The board has also appointed two crisis intervention nurses to work on-call for the three main accident and emergency departments in Cork city in a pilot programme. It is hoped the programme will be extended to all A&E units in the two counties.
In addition, the board is beginning a therapy programme to help people who have attempted suicide to develop coping skills.
Ms Eileen Murphy, a nurse who will work in crisis intervention, said catching people quickly after a suicide attempt was vital to their long-term recovery.
"A lot of them when the crisis is over feel they are okay now. They tend to want to forget about it and pretend it never happened. Then they make another attempt a month later because they haven't really dealt with whatever's behind it," she said.
The services was formally launched by the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin, yesterday .