New approach advocated for dealing with suicide and self-harm

THE provision of more informal drop-in centres providing free and confidential private support services for young people in the Mid-West to reduce the incidence of suicide and self-harm has been proposed by a North Clare mental health specialist.

Dr Terry Lynch has called for a new way in thinking to try to remove the taboo attached to helping people deal with mental health issues.
The mental health specialist believes that initiatives such as the Jigsaw Project in Galway City, which provides support services in a non-judgemental way for young people, should be replicated in other counties.
The initiative is supported by the Health Service Executive (HSE), Headstrong and Mental Health Ireland.
Dr Lynch, who will provide a lecture on Understanding, Responding to and Preventing Self-Harm, Suicidal Intent and Suicide in Young People at a conference in Glór this weekend, has called for a major change in the way society deals with the complex problem of suicide.
“Young men are at most risk of suicide because of the way society is. Boys learn not to show their own emotions and to express their own feelings or vulnerability. It is not considered strong or cool to cry.
“When a young person loses confidence they feel vulnerable and excluded because there is no-one to talk to about their feelings.
“There is a major lack of understanding in Irish society about how to deal with emotional distress and suicide.
“Teenagers are not taught how to express their feelings. When someone says, ‘I am going to commit suicide’ the recipient tends to panic and the talk stops. There tends to be too much emphasis on what specialists can do instead of seeing what each of us can do,” the Lahinch native noted.
“If a person makes that statement, you need to listen to them and give them a chance to express themselves.
“Sometimes this can be enough to provide support to a person with suicidal tendencies, on other occasions they will need medical help and intervention.
“When a person reaches that stage, at that point in time they feel suicide makes perfect sense and they feel it is the only option because there is no way out.
“Suicide is an end product for people who have lost their sense of self and self-worth,” he said.
Having met and worked with families where a loved one has committed suicide, he noted that, in many cases, the individual chose not to share their feelings before ending their own life.
Advocating the use of education to help young people express and deal with their feelings, he proposed that a greater emphasis needed to be placed in society on the development of a strong sense of self and mental wellbeing.
While acknowledging that medication had a role to play in helping people to cope with mental illness, he called for a more well-rounded holistic approach to treating a person with a mental health issue.
As a member of the national independent monitoring group overseeing the implementation of the Government mental health strategy, Vision For Change, he expressed concern about the slow pace of progress providing services on a 24-hour basis.