The State is finally taking serious steps to tackle our growing suicide problem, writes Carl O'Brien.
When it arrives, suicide tends to baffle, confuse, anger and panic families and communities.
In many ways, the health service is paralysed by similar indecision and uncertainty when it comes to dealing with suicide prevention.
Even though it was decriminalised in 1993, the stigma surrounding suicide has contributed to a failure to plan or invest effectively in prevention measures, resulting in a patchwork of services around the State.
The absence of a national authority to address suicide has left communities and families isolated, without any formal strategy on how to tackle the tragedy of suicide.
Frequently it is communities who take a lead in setting up local responses to care for their own. However, problems arise when different groups develop in isolation from others, without ways of sharing their experience, support or training.
Now, in the face of rising levels of suicide, the State is showing signs that it is beginning to take serious steps to deal with the tragedy that resulted in 453 deaths last year and thousands of attempted suicides each year.
The immediate establishment of a national office for suicide prevention within the Health Service Executive is the first such step in the right direction.
The office, responsible for co-ordinating, resourcing and administering the work of suicide prevention across the State, will provide a focus for communities in need of help, and develop education, training and support services.
The most alarming aspect of the rise in suicide has been the number of young men taking their life, who account for around 40 per cent of all suicide deaths. While the overall level of suicide is relatively normal by EU standards, the rate at which young people are dying by their own hand is the fifth-highest among the 25 member states.
Young people at risk find it difficult to communicate their hurt and distress. Studies show that just 10 per cent of young people who took their life sought any form of professional help.
Highlighting the counselling services and supports available to young men will form part of a new national campaign to promote positive mental health in a more targeted way.
It is also encouraging that officials are talking about new ways of getting the message across to young people - such as text messaging - instead of yet another leaflet or newspaper advertising campaign.
More effective targeting of other at-risk groups, such as people who attempt to harm themselves and turn up in A&E, is also long overdue.
It has been extraordinary that, until now, many of the most vulnerable - the thousands who present in hospital emergency units having self-harmed - are not followed up with counselling or psychiatric intervention.
Among the general population, the challenge of coping with the stigma of suicide is a massive issue, which can only be dealt with through sustained programmes of education, awareness and training.
The report acknowledges this and sets out a number of actions to seek to achieve this.
While the report is progressive and clear-thinking, there is the gnawing worry it may go the way of previous reports, such as the 1998 taskforce on suicide prevention. That report contained 86 recommendations, 10 of which were implemented. Funding for prevention measures didn't go far enough either.
As well as the social stigma of suicide, there is a political stigma - the perception that there are no votes in mental health. As a result, the proportion of health spending going to mental health has fallen from around 11 per cent to 7 per cent in recent years.
While there are still many questions to be answered regarding suicide, there are some certainties. It is only through sustained, targeted and properly-resourced measures that we can support people who have lost their way - and ensure that nobody faces such a crisis on their own.