Irish suicide prevention group to set up in London

IRISH SUICIDE prevention charity Console is to expand its services to London, at the request of UK authorities.

Console, whose 10th anniversary is this year, has been invited to establish a centre in London, which will open later in the autumn.

Console founder Paul Kelly was approached by members of the Metropolitan Police who were concerned about the number of deaths by suicide.

The Department of Health in the UK is also involved, as is a prominent British businessman who lost his son to suicide. The man, whose identity is not being revealed, visited Dublin recently to look at the work of Console.

The new Console centre, in the middle of London, will be engaged in suicide prevention and will also help grieving families.

“It is both a fantastic honour to be asked to establish a UK operation, and an opportunity to spread and develop our professional postvention counselling services which already work so well here in Ireland,” said Mr Kelly, the charity’s chief executive who was first approached by the Metropolitan Police at a conference two years ago.

“We are at an advanced stage in securing a premises and hope to be up and running by the end of the year.”

Initially, Console hopes to meet the needs of clients in London by providing information, resources, training and education.

Recent research in the UK has found that an extra 1,000 people took their own lives in England between 2008 and 2010 as a result of the recession.

The research – carried out by the Centre for Suicide Research at Oxford University – concluded that there were 846 more suicides among men and 155 among women than would be expected under normal economic conditions.

This will be one of the talking points when Console hosts its World Suicide Prevention Day conference at Croke Park Convention Centre on Friday, September 7th. Console’s services can be accessed at 1800 201 890