Suicide in Ireland

On average, adjusted for age, The Central Statistics Office provided the overall suicide rate has had a decreasing trend, from 13.5 per 100,000 population in 2001 to 10.0 in 2020.

The WHO stated that strong partnership such as media, school, and the government should be working together and giving support to prevent suicide (WHO, 2014).

A report (Richardson et al., 2013) stated that Irish young males had the highest number of suicides in Europe from the EU context, while another report showed Irish young females also experienced the highest suicide rate in Europe in 2018 (European Child Safety Alliance, 2014).

For gender, males were more likely to kill themselves in a more violent way such as hanging or shooting, while females were more apparent to drown, overdose or poison themselves in order to suicide (Departments of Public Health, 2001).

People who were unemployed usually experienced health problems that made them unable to work, thereby increased their stress of life and financial difficulties, leading to deceleration of self-esteem (Preti & Miotto, 1999).

Moreover, high levels of stress and financial difficulties might pose negative impacts on their mental health, which caused attempt to die by suicide and self-harm (MFHA, 2016).

18.5% of the population in Ireland reported that they were suffering from mental illness in 2016, and the rate of depression in both males and females were above the European average (Cullen, 2018).

In addition, a large number of people who experienced mental illness would take drug or medicine such as antidepressant to reduce the pressure that might also lead to increase the risk of suicide (Departments of Public Health, 2001).

Evidence showed that there was a high amount of alcohol consumption by young people usually in the weekend and public holiday as they might drink when hanging with friends or having a party (Arensman et al., 2016).

Young people who drank at an earlier age might also make them drink regularly and more in the future (Departments of Public Health, 2001).

Media, school, and the government are the three major sectors which play a significant role in suicide prevention and giving support.

The media, including the news, television, film and the internet, play a significant role in suicide prevention, especially for the younger people (Biddle et al., 2012).

For example, the media should report fewer details of the suicide cases that involve hanging, such as pictures and videos (Arensman et al., 2016).

It has been proven to improve young people's overall mental health and wellbeing, strengthen their emotional competence, and the ability to cope with their own personal difficulties (HSE, 2018).

In addition, the school should educate their students on how drinking alcohol and taking drug might impact their mental health and increase the feeling of depression (Arensman et al., 2016).

The Government of Ireland proposed to decrease the mortality rate of suicide and improve national overall mental health and wellbeing by several approaches.

In 2017, over 12000 Irish people have completed programs such as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) (Department of Health, 2015).