HSE criticised over suicide response

Councillors hit out at failures within the organisation.

The HSE has been urged to “get real” after a response to calls for more to be done to tackle suicide rates locally was met with widespread criticism from County Councillors.

The Council wrote to the organisation calling for an urgent review of mental health services in Cavan after a number of high profile cases of suicide in the region in recent months.

The HSE was described as “kidding themselves” by Cllr Aiden Fitzpatrick (FF), who said the response it sent only listed “what’s already happening”.

In an emotional speech at this week’s County Council meeting, he said people are not getting over suicide because there’s a lack of support and counselling being made available.

“Our children aren’t getting over suicide. There were five in one week. It’s being talked about and forgotten about.”

He blamed GDPR for a breakdown in services, with people being forced to look for help themselves rather than have it offered to them.

Councillors backed up the claims and were highly critical of the HSE.

For more on this discussion see this week's Celt, in shops Wednesday.