AN ADVERTISING campaign similar to that regarding road safety has been called for to tackle persistent high rates of suicide in south Kerry.
The idea was first mooted at a pre-Christmas public meeting in Killarney, and further meetings are to take place in coming months as part of a determined approach to reduce the number taking their own lives.
Four times as many south Kerry people died due to suicide than traffic incidents last year, coroner Terence Casey told those present at the launch of an integrated approach to tackling the issue.
“There’s very little money being ploughed into suicide prevention and they’re cutting money going into counselling,” Mr Casey said.
Killarney businesswoman and former nurse Deirdre Fee, who organised the meeting, An Integrated Approach to Kerry’s Fight Against Suicide, said there was a real need to advertise and campaign for suicide prevention.
“The impact of the Road Safety Authority has been huge,” she said. “Maybe we could lobby for something similar.” She stressed the importance of intervention.“Perhaps it could be the smallest intervention by a total stranger like a smile or a wave or a friendly text,” she said.
Irish Farmers’ Association chairman in Kerry, James McCarthy, outlined the work the association was doing to circulate mental health information to members. He said it was planning to link with the livestock marts and the rural transport network to help combat rural isolation.
A further public meeting on the issue will be held at the Killarney Sports and Leisure Centre on Tuesday, January 24th, at 7pm.
In an initiative in the midwest, a group of eight volunteers have begun operating patrols along the river Shannon in Limerick city to prevent people taking their lives.
The Countrywide Emergency Response Team was set up a year ago to help other rescue services search for missing people on water and land. Over the Christmas and new year period two people drowned in the river in Limerick and two more were rescued.
The team’s chief executive, Trevor Corbett, said they had conducted night patrols of the river for the past four nights to try to prevent further incidents. “Basically it’s about preventative methods – we’ve people that have done the Assist course, which trains them in ‘talking down’ people – so we’re hoping to prevent incidents before they happen but, if it does happen, we’ll have rescue swimmers ready to deploy straight away,” he said. From next week, the group will have a rescue vessel on the Shannon donated by Mallow Search and Rescue.