Young people listened to Donal Walsh on suicide
But stigma is still there and we can’t save lives until we talk openly, says retired coroner
THE legacy of Donal Walsh – the teenager who called on his peers to reject suicide as he battled terminal cancer – was a drop in the number of young people taking their own lives, a retired coroner has said.
Terence Casey retired as coroner for south and east Kerry recently. Reflecting on his career, he said teenagers had ‘listened’ to the young Tralee man who died aged 16 in May 2013.
‘In 2009, there were 15 suicides, just in south Kerry,’ Mr Casey said. ‘And in 2014, there were seven. I attribute this totally to Donal Walsh. People of his own age listened to him. He pleaded with them to treasure life, and they listened.’
Donal became well known after appearing on TV and discussing his cancer battle – as well as urging young people to end the epidemic of suicide. Mr Casey noted that in 2013, the year Donal died, there were four suicides in the area of his coroner court district. ‘Since then, I’ve had no under-21s,’ he said. ‘I attribute that totally to Donal.’
Meanwhile, Mr Casey also criticised the Government’s national strategy to reduce duicide (20152020), saying he had eventually resigned from the HSE’s local Connecting For Life project out of a sense of frustration.
‘Over 12 months, they have done nothing but talk,’ Mr Casey said. ‘They have produced glossy messages which cost a fortune but they have not prevented one suicide. I don’t think the Government is taking suicide seriously. There are twice as many deaths by suicide annually than deaths on the roads. You have to give credit to the Road Safety Authority for reducing fatalities, but the Government has done sweet damn-all for suicide.’
Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, he called for coroners to resist pressure to record suicides as ‘accidental death’. Suicide was decriminalised in 1993 but Mr Casey said the stigma surrounding it is so strong that families continue to ask officials to avoid putting the word ‘suicide’ on death certs.
‘Let’s not hide this. Let’s know how bad the situation really is,’ he said, adding that he understood the perspective of grieving loved ones. ‘It is sensitive, and it is very hard for families; they self-blame [but] if we talk more openly about this, we can lose the stigma.’
A HSE spokesman said the Connecting for Life project involved consultation with 689 people and resulted in ‘more than 60 real and concrete actions which are the backbone of the plan’.
‘The Government has done sweet damn-all’