Families affected by suicide interrupt health trust meeting

A meeting of a Belfast health trust has been interrupted today by families affected by suicide victims.

Around 50 people who have been affected by suicide within their own families gathered outside the North and West Belfast Health Trust Board meeting on Wednesday.

Two mothers were eventually given permission to address the board telling members that money was needed for suicide prevention and counselling.

One woman whose daughter took her own life said: "I go to that once a week and I don't know what's going to happen if they take that away from me, so honestly please for God's sake, get the funding from somewhere - we need it.”

Commenting on today’s meeting, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said a fully resourced, community-based suicide prevention strategy was a priority in Northern Ireland.

“Suicide is causing more fatalities than road traffic accidents,” Mr Adams said. “West Belfast has been disproportionately affected by suicide. The community in west Belfast is angry at the apparent indifference to the cycle of deaths in this community.”

Over the last three months there have been at least 15 suicides in west Belfast, seven of which occurred last week.

In a two month period at the start of last year, 13 young men took their own lives in the same area of the city.

(MB/SP)