Donie's Ireland news BLOG Wednesday

Study confirms young Irish male suicide increase due to collapse of our economy

 

Men’s Health Forum in Ireland to launch all-Ireland ‘Young Men and Suicide Project’

Since March 2011, the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland (MHFI –http://www.mhfi.org) has been working on an all-Ireland ‘Young Men and Suicide Project’ (YMSP). This cross-Border initiative was jointly funded by the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland and the National Office for Suicide Prevention in the Republic of Ireland.

On Wednesday 23rd January 2013, the report on this project will be launched at noon at two separate short events which are being held in Belfast and Dublin. In Belfast, the report will be officially launched by Minister for Health, Edwin Poots MLA, while Minister of State Kathleen Lynch TD will launch it in Dublin.

Launching the report, Edwin Poots MLA will tell the audience that: “Despite my Department‟s investment of over £32 million in suicide prevention since 2006, the suicide rate has not fallen. Around 300 people a year in Northern Ireland continue to die by suicide every year. Men aged from 18 to 54 who live in deprived areas face the greatest level of risk. In fact, males are three times as likely as females to die by suicide.

“Combating suicide is an immensely challenging task and there is no single miraculous intervention. We need to trial a range of interventions and persist with those that prove to be effective. That is one of the reasons why the Young Men and Suicide Project report is so valuable. It points us towards measures that have been tried and tested, and shown to be useful.”

Suicide is a major cause of death among young males on the island of Ireland. The recent spike in suicide rates among young males in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland coincides with the economic downturn and increasing levels of unemployment.

The aim of YMSP was to identify a range of possible means to promote positive mental health among young men, and to assess the effectiveness of these approaches. In essence, it sought to examine ‘what works with young men and what is needed.’

The lead author of the YMSP report, Dr Noel Richardson, states: “There can be no quick-fix solutions to tackling the very grave statistics on suicide in young men on the island of Ireland; but neither is there any place for inertia or ambivalence. There is both a public health and a moral requirement to act.

“There needs to be a concerted effort to engage more effectively, and in a more sustained way, with young men, and to plan services and programmes with young men in mind. This report provides a blueprint and a roadmap for action.”

The Northern Ireland launch will be held in YouthAction NI, 14 College Square North, Belfast BT1 6AS. It will include an address from Edwin Poots MLA, Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

The Republic of Ireland launch will be held in the Royal Irish Academy, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2. It will include an address from Kathleen Lynch TD, Minister of State, Department of Health and Department of Justice, Equality and Defence with responsibility for Disability, Older People, Equality and Mental Health.

Transport Minister Leo Varadkar dismisses Kerry Council’s calls to legalise drink-driving

 

The Irish transport Minister Leo Varadkar has rubbished attempts by a county council to legalise drink-driving for people in rural areas.

Mr Varadkar said country roads are already the most dangerous in Ireland and granting some people a permit to flout the law sends the wrong message internationally.

“Most of the accidents that are happening are happening in rural areas and on country roads,” said Mr Varadkar.

“While rural isolation is a real problem, the solution to it is not to hand out drink driving permits.

“Obviously it’s something we very much disagree with.”

Kerry County Council sparked outrage among road safety chiefs after it voted in favour of a motion to exempt people in isolated areas from national drink-driving laws.

Councillor Danny Healy-Rae – a publican who proposed the move – argued that allowing people to drive while under the influence could save lives.

He said it would prevent depression and suicide among people living in remote areas by allowing them to drive to and from their nearest pub.

The five council members who voted in favour – Mr Healy-Rae, his son Johnny Healy-Rae, Michael Cahill, Bobby O’Connell and Michael O’Shea – are all publicans, former publicans or connected to the pub trade.

Twelve councillors were absent from the chamber when the move was passed, while seven other councillors abstained from the vote.

The council will now ask Justice Minister Alan Shatter to issue licences that would allow people living in remote countryside to drive home from their nearest pub while over the legal limit – provided they drive slowly.

As the transport minister and Road Safety Authority chief executive Noel Brett officially launched new European standard credit card style driving licences for motorists, the pair insisted Ireland’s city roads and motorway network were among the safest in Europe as a result of the stringent drink-driving laws.

“Councils of course are entitled to pass any motion they like, that’s not for me to prescribe to them,” Mr Varadkar said.

“But what is the case, is our cities are now very safe. Dublin is now the safest city in Europe. Our motorway network is very safe.”

Road safety chief Mr Brett accused Kerry County Council of trying to drag Ireland back to “darker days”.

He said while Ireland was working hard to raise its profile as the sixth safest country in Europe in terms of road safety, this would undo all its good work.

“It’s not enforceable, it’s not insurable and it’s not practical,” Mr Brett added.

Ireland introduced random breath-testing at Garda checkpoints in 2006 and lower drink-drive limits in 2011.

Latest figures show 161 people lost their lives on Irish roads last year, a record low at 25 fewer than 2011 and 51 less than 2010.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates visits Dublin

 

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft pictured following a meeting with An Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, TD at Government Buildings, in Dublin this morning.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates was described as a “friend of Ireland” by Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore following a one-hour meeting focused on overseas development aid this morning.

Mr Gates, the billionaire and philanthropist, met separately with Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Government Buildings and will call on President Michael D Higgins.

Mr Gilmore said Mr Gates paid tribute to the work Ireland continued to do on development aid in difficult economic times.

“He had encouraging things to say to me about Ireland’s recovery. He expressed a very strong hope that Ireland would recover. He’s a very significant person in the world of business,” Mr Gilmore said.

“He’s very much a friend of Ireland. He expressed that friendship and that’s one of the reasons he was here today.”

Mr Gates is visiting a number of European countries ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Mr Gilmore said Mr Gates expressed concern about where the European Union budget “will land” in terms of its international budget, 90 per cent of which goes towards development aid at present.

Mr Gilmore said he told Mr Gates the objective was to try to agree the budget early next month.

The pair also discussed the drive to end polio. “Ireland is very much involved in making polio history,” Mr Gilmore said.

He said the disease had been eliminated in India but remained a problem in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

Massive support grows for generic drugs in Ireland

  

Since 2008, the proportion of people reporting that their doctor or pharmacist had discussed prescription options has doubled.

There is growing public awareness and support for the use of cheaper generic drugs in the health system, according to a new survey.

Some 85 per cent of those surveyed said drug prices were too high and virtually all – 98 per cent – supported measures to cut the cost of medicines, according to the cost of medicines index published by Behaviour & Attitudes.

The survey carried out for Teva Pharmaceuticals also revealed high levels of acceptance of generic alternatives with 91 per cent of people agreeing they were as safe and effective as brand name drugs.

Since 2008, the proportion of people reporting that their doctor or pharmacist had discussed prescription options has doubled, to 41 per cent, and proportion of people offered a generic alternative when filling a prescription also increased from 39 per cent to 71 per cent.

Only one-third of respondents said they were aware of Government initiatives to reduce medicine costs, but 95 per cent expressed support for these measures.

Senator John Crown said that while greater use of generics was needed, drug prices were a “softer target” for criticism than other elements of health spending such as money used for ministerial advisers or the provision of Viagra on the medical card schemes.

He said low rates of corporation tax was the sole reason pharmaceutical multinationals were attracted to Ireland and the price charged for their drugs in the local market was insignificant by comparison. Ireland should have a 0 per cent corporation tax rate for companies engaging in R&D, he suggested.

Sandra Gannon, general manager of Teva, said alarmist newspaper headlines about high drug prices didn’t tell the full story.

While the price of generic drugs in the UK was much lower than in Ireland, this was the result of many years of focused effort, she said.

The Government could reduce its annual drugs bill but this would involve a wider programme of reforms rather than relying solely on “blunt” drug price cuts.

“Drug price cuts are not an infinite well. They can only deliver so much. Indeed, much has already been given,” she said. An increase in generic sales would have to accompany price cuts, as well as measures to ensure that patients were using their medication in the most effective and cost-effective manner.

New Ireland.com tourism website launched

  

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the website was built after a full open EU tender.

A new Tourism Ireland website built to attract overseas visitors to the island of Ireland was not designed here, it has emerged.

Described by Minister for Tourism Leo Varadkar as “crucial in promoting The Gathering 2013”, the contract to design the new Ireland.com site was given to a UK agency.

Costing €3 million to develop, including the €500,000 purchase of the Ireland.com domain name from the Irish Times, the site launched in early January.

Tourism Ireland chief executive Niall Gibbons said the site’s developer was chosen after a “full open EU tender” in which London-based agency Hugo & Cat offered “the best combination of capability and value”.

The agency, which has done campaigns for Sony and Nokia, had also been engaged by Failte Ireland to create a film showcasing Dublin as a Unesco City of Literature.

Tourism Ireland says Ireland.com, which features 1,700 images of Ireland and is being rolled out to 30 markets in 11 languages including Chinese and Russian, targets the 70 per cent of people who now research and book their holidays online.

Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and filmmaker, calls our humanity 

‘A plague on the Earth’

   

Sir David Attenborough above, the famed British naturalist and television presenter, has some harsh words for humanity and right the Great Barrier Reef.

“We are a plague on the Earth,” Attenborough told the Radio Times, as reported by the Telegraph. “It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so.”

Attenborough went on to say that both climate change and “sheer space” were looming problems for humanity.

“Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now,” he said.

Sir David is not the only naturalist who has warned of population growth outstripping resources.  Paul Ehrlich, the president of the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University and author of “The Population Bomb” (Sierra Club-Ballantine, 1968) has long used language similar to Attenborough’s. And in 2011, an analysis of species loss suggested that humans are beginning to cause a mass extinction on the order of the one that killed the dinosaurs.

When asked about Attenborough’s comments on humanity as its own scourge, Ehrlich told LiveScience he “completely agree[d], as does every other scientist who understands the situation.” [Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth]

Even so, that doesn’t mean forceful measures must be taken. “Government propaganda, taxes, giving every sexually active human being access tomodern contraception and backup abortion, and, especially, giving women absolutely equal rights and opportunities with men might very well get the global population shrinkage required if a collapse is to be avoided,” Ehrlich said.

In fact, providing free, reliable birth control to women could prevent between 41 percent and 71 percent of abortions in the United States, according to a study detailed in the Oct. 4, 2012, issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Other scientists also agreed to some extent with the heart of Attenborough’s message.

“It’s clear that increasing population growth makes some of our biggest environmental challenges harder to solve, not easier,” said from Jerry Karnas, population campaign director for the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Ariz.