Are 1 in 10 young Irish people really attempting suicide? – Gript

Perhaps you did not see it, but the Irish Times carried a shocking headline, yesterday:

One in 10 young adults say they have attempted to take their own life at some point in the past, according to a Department of Health survey.

Overall, 6 per cent of more than 4,200 respondents to the survey report they have attempted to take their own life at some point in the past.

The rate among over-65s is 1 per cent, rising to 9 per cent among those with a chronic condition, 10 per cent among those aged under 35, and 15 per cent in people with fair or bad general health.

One in ten young people attempting to take their own lives is the kind of headline which makes you sit up straight and pay attention. But it should also make us ask a very basic question: Really?

If one in ten young people in Ireland were making a serious, genuine, desperate attempt to end their own lives, then our already high suicide rate would be the world’s highest by an enormous distance. That statement is in no way to take away from the already serious suicide issues we do have but it would mean that in an average secondary school in Ireland of 700 people, more than 70 would attempt suicide before the age of 30. The recorded number of suicides in Ireland across the whole country, in 2021, was just a few hundred.

Are 1 in 10 young Irish people really attempting suicide? – Gript