Prof. Siobhán O’Neill tells Derry council ‘significantly higher’ suicidal ideation rate a cause of concern
At a special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Mental Health Champion Professor Siobhán O'Neill revealed that the Western Trust area experiences the highest levels of suicide ideation and self-harm in the North.
During the meeting, Professor O'Neill highlighted figures showing that, between 2023 and 2024, the Western Trust recorded an incidence rate of 355 hospital presentations for self-harm per 100,000 population.
This was the highest rate across the North, with Belfast recording the second-highest rate at 331 per 100,000 population.
Figures relating to suicide ideation also showed the Western Trust area had the highest rate in the region. Between 2023 and 2024, the Trust recorded 414 hospital presentations for suicide ideation per 100,000 population.
This was significantly higher than any other Health and Social Care Trust area, with Belfast again recording the second-highest rate at 295 per 100,000 population.
Speaking during Tuesday's special council meeting, Professor O'Neill said: "That is a cause for concern here. The community and voluntary sector services in the North West are not funded to the same extent as they are in Belfast.
"Part of the reason for that is that we have a location where people go when they are suicidal, which is the Foyle Bridge. They then end up in the emergency department and it gets recorded here.
"Just looking at that, we need to do something here. We have all these people who we know are presenting for care at a hospital. Most of them end up going back out of the system again because they don't have a mental illness that needs to be treated in hospital, and that bed is not there anyway."
Addressing the Western Trust's high rate of suicide ideation, Professor O'Neill added: "It is significantly higher. A lot of these cases will be people who are taken by emergency services from a location. These are missed opportunities to deliver suicide prevention care, and there are interventions that will work for this group."
To tackle the issue across the North, and more specifically within the Western Trust area, Professor O'Neill highlighted Scotland's Distress Brief Intervention: Connected Compassionate Support (DBI) programme.
DBI is a non-clinical intervention consisting of two interrelated stages. Level 1 sees trained frontline staff, including healthcare workers, police officers, ambulance personnel and primary care staff, help ease a person's distress, provide a compassionate response and, where appropriate, offer a seamless referral to a DBI Level 2 service.
Level 2 is delivered by commissioned and trained third-sector staff, who contact the individual within 24 hours of referral and provide community-based problem-solving support, wellness and distress management planning, supported connections and signposting.
Professor O'Neill said she plans to present the approach to Health Minister Robbie Butler, adding that the system could save more than £9 million annually.
Responding to Professor O'Neill's presentation, Sinn Féin Councillor Jackson said: "We see the figures in front of us, and they are stark. It is difficult when you know there are personal stories behind each of those 200-plus cases every year. These are people, and there are families being devastated."