Civic society across Ireland must be mobilised to tackle the growing incidence of suicide, according to Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
Ireland, both North and South, was still far short of the integrated approach necessary to address suicide, Mr Adams told a Sinn Féin conference on suicide at Stormont yesterday.
Last week the Assembly adopted an amended motion placing responsibility on its health committee to devise proposals for combating suicide.
Yesterday, Sinn Féin held a conference, "Suicide, a Preventable Crisis" at Parliament Buildings attended by various interested groups, those bereaved by suicide and Assembly members and TDs including Fine Gael's Dan Neville, who is president of the Irish Association of Suicidology.
Mr Adams said that 645 people took their lives on the island of Ireland in 2005 but this was close to 800 last year. "It is generally accepted that the actual rate of suicide is higher than the rate officially recorded," he added.
"Many were young, and a high proportion were elderly. It is also reported that one in every five people who go to their GP have mental health needs. In west and north Belfast this is reported to be one in three," he added.
"With practical and measurable steps, and proper and effective resources, we can begin to tackle this crisis and dispel the panic and fear about suicide," said Mr Adams.
Mr Neville told the conference that in the Republic in excess of 11,000 people annually present at hospital having attempted suicide or self-harm.
He cited several factors which worldwide have been found to correlate to suicide including increases in indictable crime, alcoholism, unemployment, high incidences of births to single mothers, and marital breakdown.Mr Neville said that "ignoring the suicide epidemic borders on political immorality". An innovative multi-sectional approach was required, he said.
