New National Strategy for Suicide Prevention Launched

A new National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, 2015-2020, has been launched by Minister for Primary Care, Social Care and Mental Health, Kathleen Lynch.

The new strategy, called 'Connecting for Life', builds on Reach Out, the country's 2005-2014 prevention strategy.

Launching the strategy, Minister Kathleen Lynch, said: "Looking after our mental health is a cornerstone of improving the health of our people. It is as important as physical health. As a Government we have been putting the structures in place to try to ensure that people get the right type of mental health treatment in the right place and above all at the right time.

"We have developed services in primary care for those who have mild and moderate mental health needs. We are continuing to develop care for those who are acutely unwell. We are finally seeing a breakthrough in some of the recruitment challenges that didn't allow us to provide as extensive a service as we would like. We are committed to replacing the old central mental hospital with a state of the art National Forensic Hospital which will be operational by 2018. We are developing four 30 bed intensive care rehabilitation units in Cork, Galway, Portrane and Westmeath. We are supporting organisations that are supporting people in our communities who are stressed, depressed or need to talk.

"One size doesn't fit all in mental health and the range of services reflects this. As part of the suicide strategy, we need to connect with ourselves, our families, our communities and the services that are on offer."

(MH)