Blog: Suicide Prevention Day 2014

September 10th 2014 is World Suicide Prevention Day. This is 24 hours dedicated to the 800,000 people who die from suicide each year – this roughly corresponds to one death every 40 seconds. Around 500 of those lives (our parents, siblings, mates, colleagues and neighbours) were lost tragically in Ireland.

On this day SpunOut.ie is asking people all over Ireland to remember all those who have died by suicide, and to think of those who may currently be going through tough times.

Suicide is a big problem in Ireland, and for too long the stigma associated with suicide has stopped us from talking about our mental health.
We want you to know that no matter how difficult things are, there are always solutions and help out there to help you through tough times. If you are going through difficulties, please let someone know.

No matter how big your problems may seem, talking to someone will help. You can find information about relevant support services in Ireland in our Help services database.
One of our SpunOutters, Mairead, challenges the stigma of mental illness with her article. Help to break down the stigma by sharing it online.

What you can do

Often people don’t know what they can do to help especially when the problem seems so big. One thing that you can do is to share our Links for Life image on social media, or save it on your phone so you have the necessary information to get help when you or someone you know needs it. You can download the image at https://spunout.ie/about/downloads

Read and share our mental health content
We have loads of factsheets on mental health and real-life stories by people who have gone through tough times. Some of the articles you might want to read are:

Mental health
Dealing with the bad days
It’s time to talk
Good mental health
How to support a friend going through depression
Dealing with depression

Check out our Ditch The Monkey series to help promote positive mental health!

Sign Mental Health Reform’s petition
The amount of money spent each year by the government on mental health services is only a fraction of what is really needed. Mental Health Reform are asking people to sign their petition to make it clear to politicians that mental health is important and that the money allocated to mental health service needs to be spent on mental health services and not something else. You can find more information about the Mental Health reform’s petition here.

Remember, there is always support out there!