No funding to deliver crucial Suicide Prevention Strategy

SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan has expressed serious concern following reports that deaths from suicide in Northern Ireland are on the rise with 237 deaths recorded just last year according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

This represents the highest number of registered deaths by suicide within the last seven years.

Mr Durkan said that inaction at Stormont sanctioned by the DUP has undoubtedly been a contributory factor.

In September 2022, in response to an Assembly Question tabled by the MLA for Foyle, Health Minister Robin Swann confirmed that the rollout of a strategy to prevent suicides, the Protect Life 2 Suicide Prevention Strategy, could not be implemented in the absence of an executive.

The Foyle MLA said: “These figures are deeply concerning and my thoughts are with the hundreds of bereaved families who have lost a loved one to suicide.

“Suicide rates for both men and women have been on an upward trajectory in recent years. Mental health support services are massively stretched and struggling with the weight of demand.

"Much needed, promised resources has gone undelivered resulting in individuals being unable to access support as and when they need it. It is unforgivable that Protect Life 2, a life-saving strategy and delivery of post-vention services for bereaved families, has become yet another casualty of the DUP sanctioned stalemate of our institutions.

“This vital suicide prevention strategy was hard-won after years of campaigning from myself and many others, to tackle the epidemic of suicide and its devastating impact within our communities.

“We can’t forget the fact that it had already suffered a three-year delay, sitting gathering dust in the department of health following the previous collapse of Stormont. 

“The failure to deliver on these promises is indefensible.

"The North continues to stand as the region with the largest numbers of deaths by suicide across the UK. The high rates of deprivation and inequality here continue to be driving factors of and associated with suicide.

"The reality is that without a government in place to cushion people against the cost of living emergency, those inequalities will only deepen.

“There are many organisations working extremely hard on the issue of poor mental health; but we need to see the delivery of Protect Life 2 to ensure that lives are saved. 

“People are desperate, crying out for support and lives are being lost. Meanwhile the DUP continue to uphold their abhorrent dereliction of duty from the DUP, leaving vulnerable individuals and their families, without essential protections.”

Nisra said that cross-country comparisons will be affected by differences in data collection and collation processes used in the separate jurisdictions.

The Belfast Trust had the highest suicide rate at 17.9 deaths per 100,000 in 2021, followed by Western Trust (16.0 deaths per 100,000).

Northern Trust had the lowest suicide rate in 2021 at 10.4 deaths per 100,000.

Northern Ireland’s most deprived areas had a suicide rate that was almost twice that of the least deprived areas in 2020 (19.7 deaths per 100,000 in the most deprived areas, 10.8 per 100,000 in the least deprived).

The official UK definition of suicide encompasses deaths due to external causes relating to intentional self-harm and of undetermined intent. It does not include deaths where the outcome was deemed accidental.

Responding to the figures, Northern Ireland’s Mental Health Champion Professor Siobhan O’Neill tweeted: “We never forget that these are the real people, with loving families and friends who are devastated.”

Professor Gerry Lynch, suicide prevention lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists Northern Ireland said: “These latest figures show that death by suicide remains a huge public health challenge.

“It is even more important that we have funding for interventions, including the Mental Health Strategy.”