Northern Ireland Office Health Minister Shaun Woodward has welcomed suggestions he should explore with the Tánaiste the possibility of a cross-Border strategy on suicide prevention.
Mr Woodward made his comments in an address to a conference on the issue in Belfast today.
A taskforce into suicide prevention has been asked to consider undertaking a major survey to increase understanding of the problem in the North.
Northern Ireland Office Health Minister Shaun Woodward
With 150 young people taking their own lives in the North last year, the minister urged experts from the United States, Scotland and Ireland; bereaved relatives; and community and voluntary groups who attended the conference to learn from the experience of family members left behind and those who survived suicide attempts.
"We have a lot to learn from these testimonies," he said. "Too tragically those who took their lives and left no explanation, no note, cannot tell us what would have saved them.
"But those who have been at that point of despair but for some reason or another, did not take their lives or failed to take their lives, have we learnt enough from them?"
Mr Woodward conceded suicide levels were high in the North, particularly among young men. But he noted the number of suicides was also rising in most countries in the western world, including in Canada, the United States, New Zealand, Norway, and France.
PA