Madam, – At a time when the economic crisis is dominating media discourse it is good to see that, at last, some attention is being given to a more serious national problem. The Irish Times (Home News, April 12th) reported that Joan Freeman, chief executive of Pieta House said that nine out of 10 suicidal people who present to her therapeutic service for counselling are without a psychiatric history and are instead responding to a difficult event in their lives.
This statement, from a woman who is at the coalface of suicide prevention, should help dispel the myth that suicide results mainly from psychiatric illness.
She gives two examples of the type of people who are taking their lives. Her first is “a woman in her 50s who had come to a series of endings in her life. Her children had left the home, her fertility had come to an end. Her self-image was very poor.” The second example is “a man in his 30s or 40s who has come out of a broken relationship and not only has he lost the love of his life but more than likely his shared circle of friends, and worst of all that, spontaneous access to his children.”
Both examples show that the manner in which we order our society is driving certain categories of people to suicide. It is an appalling reflection on our society that a woman should have such a poor self-image because she has reached a certain stage in her life. In the second example, responsibility for the consequences of misandrist legislation and the anti-father practices of the institutions of State rests squarely with those who govern our society. – Yours, etc,