PIPS Suicide Prevention charity challenges health spending priorities
‘If suicide prevention is genuinely a priority, we should be able to see that priority in the budget’ - PIPS Suicude Prevention charity
The Stormont Executive has been accused of “funding the structures but not the frontline” in terms of suicide prevention.
PIPS Suicide Prevention charity has challenged health spending priorities following the revelation the combined salaries of 14 senior health officials now totalled approximately £2.1 million a year, while frontline suicide prevention organisations continue to fight for sustainable funding.
The charity highlighted the issue was not individual salaries, but what the figures revealed about a system that appears able to fund the structures around health and suicide prevention, while organisations delivering services directly to people remain financially uncertain.
PIPS’ intervention came as NISRA figures show 290 suicide deaths were registered in Northern Ireland in 2024, compared with 221 in 2023.
PIPS Charity Chief Executive, Renee Quinn said: “Enough is enough. Stop telling frontline organisations there is no money. There is money in the system, choices are being made about where it is spent.
“This is not an attack on individuals or their salaries,” she added, “ it is about priorities and whether enough of the money within our health system is actually reaching the point of delivery.
“We always appear able to find money to fund the structures that plan, manage and oversee our health services. We fund strategies, reviews, action plans, and the infrastructure around their delivery but a strategy does not counsel someone in crisis. An action plan does not sit across from someone who is experiencing suicidal thoughts. A structure does not provide a counselling session. People and services do and they need funded.
Northern Ireland does not need another strategy telling us suicide prevention matters. We need the strategies and commitments we already must be properly funded and delivered
“That is the contradiction we are challenging. We cannot continue funding the machinery around suicide prevention without adequately funding the services that deliver it.
“At PIPS Charity, approximately £50 provides a counselling session. We can tell the public exactly what that £50 delivers, professional support for someone who needs it. So, if there is sufficient money to maintain the structures responsible for planning and overseeing services, why is sustainable funding for organisations delivering those services still such a battle?
“And we must put this discussion in the context of the latest figures. 290 suicide deaths were registered in Northern Ireland in 2024. How much worse do the figures have to become before the funding decisions match the language we hear about suicide prevention being a priority? Our challenge to the Health Minister, the Department of Health and the SPPG is simple: show us the money. Publish how much is being spent specifically on suicide prevention. Show how much reaches direct frontline services. Show what is being spent on the structures around those services. And show the public what outcomes that investment is delivering,” said Ms Quinn.
She added: “If suicide prevention is genuinely a priority, we should be able to see that priority in the budget.
“Priorities without resources are simply promises.
“Northern Ireland does not need another strategy telling us suicide prevention matters. We need the strategies and commitments we already must be properly funded and delivered.
“We cannot keep funding the administration of ambition while underfunding the delivery of action. There is money in the system. There are choices about where it goes. With 290 suicide deaths registered in one year, those choices deserve urgent scrutiny and that just isn't happening,” said Ms Quinn.
PIPS Charity called on the Department of Health to “fully fund the Mental Health Strategy, publish a clear breakdown of suicide prevention expenditure, including how much reaches direct frontline provision and how much supports administration, planning, commissioning, and associated structures”.