Chai Brady
There are “gravely insufficient” supports and services for Irish teens at risk of suicide, according to a Mater Hospital psychiatrist.
This comes as a Unicef report found that Ireland has the fourth highest suicide rate among teenagers in the EU.
Prof. Patricia Casey, a UCD and Mater hospital psychiatrist, has said the emergency services are sufficient but that facilities in hospitals must improve. “If somebody is very depressed and suicidal for example, and needing hospital admission, there are not enough inpatient beds for adolescents,” she said, “as well as that the waiting lists for assessments of outpatients is huge, so there are huge deficits”.
Prof. Casey added that there are “very worthwhile” organisations such as Pieta House and Dublin-based Jigsaw, but they are stretched, especially outside Dublin.
Cannabis
However the report also found that fewer teenagers were reporting being drunk in Ireland, which was said to be an improvement. However Prof. Casey said that this may be because it is being replaced by other substances such as cannabis.
“It may be that it’s due to substance misuse. Now I know that for the last two years our alcohol consumption seems to have gone down but nevertheless young people use a lot of cannabis and illicit drugs so it could be related to that,” she said.
Suicide
The report also found that teen suicide is lower in southern European countries.
The Chief Executive of Unicef Ireland, Peter Power, said: “Despite economic recovery and the idea that the consequent rising tide will benefit everyone, it is clear children are experiencing real and substantial inequality and we risk leaving them behind. Services are inadequate in several areas and policy change is badly needed.”