Madam, - Dr Declan Sheerin's letter on suicide prevention (October 20th) might lead a reasonable person to conclude that the major cause of suicide among the young is a lack of acute psychiatric in-patient care for psychotically ill young people.
As someone who has worked in psychiatry as a social worker in the UK, I have no difficulty in believing Dr Sheerin's assessment of the lack of acute beds for adolescents. However, his letter clouds the issue of suicide among the young in Ireland.
Firstly there is a clear gender issue, which Dr Sheerin does not allude to. It is young men overwhelmingly who end their own lives.
Secondly, no study that I am aware of has indicated that those young men who die by their own hand are suffering from schizophrenia.
- Yours, etc.,
PHIL MAC GIOLLA BHÁIN, Gortahork, Co Donegal.