A major national multimedia campaign on suicide prevention will be launched early next year.
Geoff Day, director of the new National Office for Suicide Prevention, said the campaign in print, broadcast and internet media would be a long-term programme.
Mr Day, who yesterday addressed the Mental Health Ireland conference in Wexford, said a similar campaign had been launched in Scotland, and "based on the Scottish experience it will have to be a five to 10 year campaign".
The main message would be, "if you are in trouble get help", and support services would have to be in place so people could do so.
The National Office for Suicide Prevention runs a training programme to gear up communities to respond better to a suicidal incident or to people who have suicidal thoughts. Some 1,500 people have so far been trained, including teachers, priests, gardaí and GPs.
In Scotland the number of suicides has levelled off, and through the media campaign public attitudes to mental ill-health have improved. People realised there was more support available in the community.
The campaign will first be aimed at the general population and then at specific vulnerable groups such as young males.
Citing EU figures, Mr Day said Ireland had the fifth highest youth suicide rate after Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Latvia.
Incidents of self-harm were at their highest among young women in the 15-20 age group, and there was a link between repeated self-harm and suicide.
The office has a 12-point plan for 2006 based on the anti-suicide strategy Reach Out. Plans include improving the response in hospital A&E units to cases of self-harm. Only about 60 per cent of A&E units have a co-ordinated response.
Mr Day said guidelines on the reporting by the media of suicide and mental health issues would be published again. The media had a "critical role" to play and could have a positive or very damaging effect. The media should not give specific details of the manner of a suicide or the location as there was evidence that this could lead to others copying it.
Research consultant Dr Fiona Keogh said the development of the new national mental health strategy, Vision for Change, had been a real consultative process and not a "tokenistic exercise". Service users, such as a former psychiatric hospital patient and a voluntary organisation for carers, were represented, and "that voice was heard for the first time". It had a real impact on policy.