Ireland’s next national suicide and self-harm prevention strategy is currently in development by the Department of Health and should be launched in early 2026, Mr. John Meehan, HSE Assistant National Director, Access & Integration and Head of the National Office for Suicide Prevention(NOSP) told the HMI West North West Regional Meeting on Suicide Prevention.
“The HSE NOSP will be responsible for supporting, informing and monitoring the implementation of the new strategy – which will succeed Connecting for Life – across statutory agencies, NGOs and Government Departments.”
This summer, the Department of Health held a public consultation to inform the contents of this new strategy. A total of 1,895 responses were received.
Key themes that emerged from the public consultation were:
- Ensuring accessible and high quality services.
- Enhancing care systems.
- Targeted interventions and support.
- Education and stigma reduction.
- Addressing social determinants in suicide prevention these issues.
Mr. Meehan said that the vision of our current national strategy is of an Ireland where fewer lives were lost through suicide, and where communities and individuals were empowered to improve their mental health and wellbeing.
The current goals of Connecting for Life are:
- Better understanding of suicidal behaviour.
- Supporting communities to prevent and respond to suicidal behaviour.
- Targeted approaches for those vulnerable to suicide.
- Improved access, consistency and integration of services.
- Safe and high quality services.
- Reduce access to means.
- Better data and research.
The outcomes they sought were reduced suicide rates and reduced rates of hospital presentations of self-harm.
Mr. Meehan said that in 2024 the HSE NOSP’s budget was €14.8m. This investment had increased significantly in the last twelve years, from €5.19m in 2012. In 2024, 55% of the Office’s expenditure was for grants to over 20 national organisations and frontline services working in the area of suicide prevention and mental health promotion. Additional grants were allocated to more local agencies, via regional HSE structures.
There are 22 regional HSE Resource Officers for Suicide Prevention, employed within local health service structures, and funded by the HSE NOSP. They facilitate local Connecting for Life Implementation Groups, training and other related suicide, self-harm and suicide bereavement initiatives.
“Positioning of ‘suicide prevention’ and implementation ownership, within Health Regions and Centre structures will be a key priority going forward,” said Mr. Meehan.
HSE Resource Officers for Suicide Prevention are situated within the six Health Regions and report into regional structures. However, their alignment and positioning within new Integrated Healthcare Areas, is to be finalised. “We have ten regional plans but we want to reduce these to six area plans.”
Mr. Meehan said that over 500 people die by suicide in Ireland each year. While overall rates of suicide were reducing in Ireland, one area of concern are the levels of self-harm presentations to Emergency Departments, especially among particular cohorts. He referenced the work of the HSE National Clinical Programme for Self-harm and Suicide Ideation, in this regard.
Mr. Meehan said that mandatory training on suicide prevention would be beneficial for frontline health services staff. “We need to work towards having some kind of mandatory training for front line staff dealing with people who may have self-harmed, attempted suicide or who may be contemplating suicide.
“However, it could be difficult for managers to find time to release staff for two-day courses, so it is something towards which we should work. In the meantime, there are a number of virtual courses and a considerable amount of printed educational material available for staff, community care givers and volunteers. For example, we were very proud to introduce ‘Let’s Talk About Suicide’ last year. It is a free, 60-minute online prevention programme which is available to everybody. We highly recommend this as an entry level introduction to suicide prevention skills. The programme recently won the Education Award for 2025, at the Ireland eGovernment Awards”.
The HSE NOSP supports the National Suicide Research Foundation, and Irish Prison Service to collaborate on monitoring self-harm and suicide in across prisons and to embed training and other preventative initiatives across their system.
Mr. Meehan said that the HSE NOSP has been working for some time, to progress suicide data improvement, and surveillance projects. For example, they were working to establish real-time notification of suspected suicide incidents, from the Pulse system in An Garda Síochána, to the HSE centrally. This is presently at agreement/approval stage with An Garda Síochána. Up to now, there is no centralised system for the notification of suspected suicide deaths from An Garda Síochána to our Health Services. These types of notifications only typically happen on an ad hoc basis, and are dependent on local relationships.
Aside from these early stage notifications, in Ireland, the decision as to whether someone has died by suicide is a legal determination made by Coroners, not a medical decision by doctors or the HSE and there is a time delay in the availability of data. Following the Coronial investigation, inquest and registration processes, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) publishes national mortality data, including data on deaths by suicide.
“However, as part of the next strategy we may need to begin a conversation on how we legally determine ‘suicide’. In Ireland, the current legal test for a Coroner’s verdict of suicide includes a requirement that the self-killing and intention are proved ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’.
Other legal tests can exist though – ‘more likely than not’ or ‘on the balance of probabilities’ (as used in the UK). We welcome any conversations between government departments that could explore the feasibility and impact of, changing this legal threshold in Ireland”.
Before closing, Mr. Meehan reflected on the language we use when talking about suicide. He said research has shown that the glorification of suicide can have negative effects on others. Mr. Meehan added that when dealing with suicide, people should be mindful and aware of their own needs and self-care in this space. “Take a break, opt out or mute a conversation, at any point if you feel you need to. Talk to someone, check in with a colleague.”
He said being mindful of our use of language around suicide was always important. “Always use sensitive and non-stigmatising language when discussing suicide and self-harm. Use simple terms like ‘died by suicide’ or ‘ended his or her own life’ rather than ‘committed suicide’. Try not to identify a person solely by their mental health difficulty and never use “suicide” as a noun to describe a person. Use neutral and simple terms. Remain non-judgemental throughout and try not to make assumptions about others.”
Elaine Prendergast, Chair of the West, North West HMI Regional Group was the Moderator of the meeting, Trish Stephens, Member of the HMI West Committee compiled the questions and the meeting was sponsored by GSK.
- For more information on the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention visit www.nosp.ie or email info@nosp.ie.
- For more information on suicide prevention training programmes available nationally, visit www.nosp.ie/training.
- For more information on mental health, services and supports, visit the HSE website www.yourmentalhealth.ie.
