Minister addresses suicide issue

Areas of Belfast have higher than average suicide levels

People need to learn from families who have lost relatives through suicide in order to save others, the health minister has said.

Shaun Woodward was speaking after a major conference on suicide prevention. One hundred and fifty people take their lives each year in Northern Ireland.

Some bereaved relatives attended the event, as did members of a taskforce looking at ways of preventing deaths.

The conference featured speakers from the USA, Scotland and Ireland.

It was organised by Mr Woodward, two months after he announced the taskforce to tackle the growing number of suicides.

The speakers included David Litts of the Suicide Prevention Resource Centre in Washington and Caroline Farquhar, who was behind the implementation of Scotland's strategy to prevent suicide.

John Peters gave a survivor's perspective on suicide while Derek Chambers, the manager of Reach Out, Ireland's strategy for suicide prevention, also spoke.

There were at least 15 suicides in west Belfast in a three-month period this year with seven deaths occurring in one week in April.

Funding worries

North Belfast also has an above average suicide rate, with 13 young men taking their own lives in the Ardoyne area within a two-month period at the start of last year.

In June, Mr Woodward said suicide prevention was a priority.

He was speaking after meeting bereaved families, who had been campaigning since April for health boards and trusts to increase funding.

The relatives said they still had to be convinced, as they said mental health services in north and west Belfast remained "seriously underfunded".

The minister said the taskforce would examine "what the statutory and voluntary sector together may be able to do" to prevent suicides in Northern Ireland.