Professor Siobhan O’Neill and Health Minister Robin Swann
Speaking ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day, Co Derry-born Professor Siobhan O’Neill warned that unless action is taken to tackle the continued economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, people could “plunge into destitution” and “lose hope completely”.
Finance Minister Conor Murphy wrote to Chancellor Rishi Sunak last week calling for an extension of the furlough scheme.
The letter was backed by all the parties in the Stormont Executive, but the Chancellor has yet to a respond to the call.
In the North of Ireland, 250,000 people had their salaries paid through the job retention scheme during the pandemic.
Prof O’Neill says ending the furlough scheme is a concern and more support is needed to protect vulnerable people.
“We know that whenever we have had recessions such as in Ireland in 2008, there was an increase in suicide rates there, resulting from the austerity measures,” she said.
“We have seen that in other countries too where job losses and recession can lead people into crisis situations and that’s when suicide can seem like the only answer.
“It’s very important that we do whatever we can to prevent those economic crises from happening because we know that individuals will be affected and this can lead to suicidal behaviour.
“Not only should we reduce the impact of the recession and that might mean extending the furlough scheme for example, which appeared to work well in terms of supporting people, but we should also understand how the welfare benefits systems impacted on individuals.”
She added: “We need to ensure that we don’t plunge people into destitution where they really lose hope completely. If we can prevent job losses in the first place that would be really helpful.”
Prof O’Neill says that while the initial stages of Covid-19 saw a decrease in suicide rates, there has been a worrying rising trend.
“We don’t know what effects the virus has on the neurological system,” she said.
“We are weighing up the impact of the lockdown on people’s mental health with the impact of the virus on everyone’s health.
“It’s one risk against another.”
The North of Ireland’s higher suicide rate compared with the rest of the UK is well-documented.
In her new role, the 46-year-old from Craigbane has vowed to ensure the voices of those suffering with their mental health or have lost loved ones to suicide are heard at government level.
This week, a new campaign, ‘Working Together To Promote Mental Wellbeing’ was launched by the Public Health Agency (PHA) along with five Health and Social Care Trusts, the NI Ambulance Service and the Health and Social Care Board.
They will work together to promote ways to support mental wellbeing, with co-ordinated messages and links to support on social media.
Over the next five weeks the campaign will focus on the ‘Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing’, which offers practical ideas to help support people with protecting and improving their own mental wellbeing and that of those around them.
The Take 5 Steps to Wellbeing are evidence based, easy to follow steps to help maintain and improve your wellbeing.
The steps are Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give.
“We are living in uncertain times and we don’t know what’s ahead of us.
“But we must always remain hopeful and remember that we have very good structures of support for those who are struggling,” Prof O’Neill added.
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