By Sharon Gibbons | Grants & Trusts Manager
Suicide is a leading cause of death, particularly in young people, in Ireland. Each year there are over 12,000 attempted suicides, in Ireland. In 2016 alone, 400 people in Ireland died by suicide.
At Pieta House, we work every day to prevent suicide from happening and to provide support and care for the family and friends of those who have lost someone.
Mental health continues to be highly stigmatized in Ireland. Wait times for public health care are long and the costs of private care can be prohibitive.
We provide free, community-based counselling to anyone who has attempted or is thinking about suicide and self-harm. Our accredited and professionals therapists work with service users from the moment they make contact with Pieta until they have reached a point of personal stability.
By bringing people from their darkest days through to a place of light, hope and care, Pieta helps to rebuild the lives of our service users. We empower them with the skills to address future challenges in a healthy way.
Since its foundation in 2006, more than 34,900 (2016: 27,774) people in suicidal crisis or who engage in self-harm have benefited from Pieta's uniquely effective care. In attempting to meet the demand within the community for this care, provision of the service has grown at an extraordinary rate, from 70 service users in 2006 to 7,142 in 2017 (2016: 5,879), an increase of 21% on the figure for 2016.
Pieta House provided suicide bereavement counselling services in 550 cases during 2017 (194 in July to Dec. 2016). A total of 4,684 hours of bereavement counselling were delivered. (1,264 in July to Dec. 2016). The service users who accessed this service ranged in the age bracket of 6 to 79 whilst the majority of service users were aged between 24 and 45 (30% of bereavement service users).
The helpline received over 16,500 calls and responded to 10,421 texts during the year compared to 6,598 calls and 4,410 texts in the 6 month period from July to December 2016.
Suicide liaison officers working across Ireland helped in over 167 cases of death by suicide in 2017 (80 in period July to December 2016). Liaison officers work with families, friends and the wider community where a suicide has occurred. Many such cases involve multiple individuals who require separate counselling services.
In the past year, we have opened our 15th Pieta House centre in Athlone, Co. Westmeath. This is our first centre in the Midlands region and brings us 1 step closer to nationwide service.
Demand for our services continues to grow but with the help of our donors around the world, we are able to continue our life-saving work with no charge to our service users.
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