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Updated 3pm
RESEARCH ON SUICIDE rates in Ireland has shown that there were 476 more male suicides than would have been expected during 2008 and 2012 had the recession not happened.
A recent RTÉ investigation revealed the national suicide rate has not exceeded the annual rate of 12.2 per 100,000 of the population since 2004 and the suicide rate was higher in 2001 than any other year after the downturn.
However The National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) said that while rates fell between 2001 and 2007, after that self-harm among both sexes has been increasing, as have suicide rates among men in Ireland.
Their analysis shows that in 2008, the first year of the recession, there was a “significant increase” in rates, reversing the previous decreasing trend. The researchers at University College Cork (UCC) compared the rates of suicide and self-harm with the rates that would have been observed had the decreasing trend between 2001 and 2007 continued here.
They found the rate of male suicide by the end of 2012 was 57% higher than it would have been if the recession had not happened. The rate of self-harm among both men and women was also 37% and 26% higher respectively.
Between 2008 and 2012, there were 476 more male suicides than would have been expected during this period had the economic downturn not occurred.
Numbers of self-harm presentations were also higher than would have been expected – 5,029 males and 3,833 females.
There have been similar findings in other countries, including the UK and the US but the NSRF said the impact seems to have been greater in Ireland.
A report in 2013 found that in one third of suicides, the person was unemployed and 42% had worked in the construction and production sectors – those most severely affected by the recession. However other factors, such as a history of self-harm, depression and substance abuse were also prevalent.
NSRF research director Ella Arensman has previously said that the recession was “compounding the problems that the vulnerable were already facing”.
If you need someone to talk to, contact:
Samaritans 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org
Console 1800 247 247 – (suicide prevention, self-harm, bereavement)
Aware 1890 303 302 (depression, anxiety)
Pieta House 01 601 0000 or email mary@pieta.ie - (suicide, self-harm)
Teen-Line Ireland 1800 833 634 (for ages 13 to 19)
Childline 1800 66 66 66 (for under 18s)
First published 10.34am
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Great idea – similar laws in other countries. Should give people the right amount of time in between jobs to find their feet.
Or, maybe we could introduce a system of universal healthcare so that healthcare is accessible and affordable for everyone, and not just those who can afford insurance!
A yrs health insurance every 18 months from now on then
@Misanthrope: I take a break of 13 weeks every year when it comes up for renewal and I do not lose cover or waiting time.
You are allowed 13 weeks to shop about
@ryan3939: I should too but couldn’t be arsed. Going to start doing it now.
@ryan3939: How can you not lose cover if you take that 13 week break ? Do you mean that the insurance company will honour anything within those 13 weeks even if you haven’t paid you renewal ?
@Nosmo King: No, the current system is that, if you cancel a policy from today, you have 13 weeks from today to take up a policy again, before being slapped with waiting periods as a new customer.
So, if you cancel today, and in a month you find out that you need surgery soon, you can call up, set up a policy from the date of the call, and continue on as if nothing happened.
you can also backdate that 13 weeks if you want, but you do have to pay for the time.. which is fine, if you needed cover during the 13 weeks, but if you didn’t, then just setting up from the date of the call is a good option.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Thanks for that. I’m surprised that insurance companies of all businesses allow such an anomaly to exist.
@Nosmo King: I’d say they would say you knew about whatever illness it was and that it was a pre-existing condition so not covered, so basically you don’t have cover for the 13wks your not paying for
@Alison Sheppard: if you’ve completed your waiting periods your free and clear on that score.
@Nosmo King: Np, i spent 6 years in health insurance. This is something that was set out by the likes of the health inurance authority, in order to be fair to health insurance holders
That stamp duty is 444 per adult and 148 per child. 1184 for the typical 1 adult 2 kid family. Ridiculous really
@lavbeer: it’s disgraceful how much of it goes straight to the government. If the tax on the cost of the policies was reduced or removed, health insurance might be more affordable to most.
@lavbeer: but will the saving REALLY be passed on – it rarely is! Remains to be seen.
@cars: For the government health levy (this is the 444, rather than the separate lifetime community rating levy), most of that money actually goes to VHI.
The health levy goes into a pot, and is then divvied up between the insurers. VHI gets something like 80% of the pot, based on how many older (over 65) members they have, and the remainder is split between Laya and Irish Life Health.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: yea it does but it’s up to 50% of my premium which now generally is worthless.
@lavbeer: Totally agree. Its just under 50% for me, and the kicker is that i am with irish life health.. Yet i am still paying vhi a substantial amount, in essence.
The levy was introduced and set out this way, because of the fact that vhi was previously fulky government owned.
Nice to see some bits and pieces coming our way for a change.
What happens if you get sick during the break
@Dave barrett: you won’t have cover if your on a break, but means when you restart you won’t have waiting period again
Say what you will about our health service but our Health Insurance market is actually regulated quite fairly all things considered.
@ForeverFeel1ng: Is that why it goes up every year and is that why the insures never question a hospital bill which is mainly makey uppy in the first place? People in wards being charged for private rooms etc, that kind of regulation?
have your say