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‘More people in Northern Ireland have died by suicide in the past 17 years than were killed here during 30 years of violent political conflict.’
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/january-2021/new-hope-mental-health-northern-ireland
https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/january-2021/new-hope-mental-health-northern-ireland
Written in 2019: ‘Drug-related deaths among males in Northern Ireland have almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to new government figures. The number of males dying from drug-related causes increased by 98% between 2007 and 2017.’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-northern-ireland-47441072?__twitter_impression=true
Remember when the DUP did a deal with Theresa May after the 2017 GE & a load of ppl on Twitter were complaining about all this extra money that was going to be spent on NI? I remember. If any area of the UK needs extra money spent on it then its NI in truth.
‘Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the UK, which is also higher than suicide rates reported in the Republic of Ireland.’ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(19)30525-5/fulltext
‘The Troubles has also taken its toll on the mental health of the population, with the Northern Ireland Study of Health and Stress finding that almost four in ten people in the region had experienced a traumatic event related to the conflict.’
‘The suicide rates in NI have risen since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, and the increase from 143 registered suicides in 1996 to 305 in 2017 was particularly sharp. An inverse association exists between the numbers of deaths in the conflict and the number of suicide deaths.’
‘The lower rates of suicide during the conflict in Northern Ireland have been linked to the social and political context, which Tomlinson explains in terms of increased social integration as a result of the perceived need to protect families and neighborhoods from threat.’
This sounds like the ‘come together effect.’
See my thread on the ‘come together effect’ re Covid & suicide here. https://twitter.com/post_liberal/status/1325945569035096064?s=20
See my thread on the ‘come together effect’ re Covid & suicide here. https://twitter.com/post_liberal/status/1325945569035096064?s=20
‘Come together effect’ best explained by the line in the Dylan song ‘Brownsville Girl’ i.e ‘strange how people who suffer together have stronger connections than people who are most content.’
‘Stronger connections’ have been theorised to be protective of suicide since Durkheim.
‘Stronger connections’ have been theorised to be protective of suicide since Durkheim.
Suicide in NI unsurprisingly strongly linked to deprivation & urbanicity
‘The most commonly reported life events and problems were relationship crises, and employment or financial difficulties. Conversely, the protective effects of having a partner and children were highlighted by Corocran and Nagar1 and Uggla and Mace.’
‘Only a third of people who died by suicide in Northern Ireland were known to be in employment, which is in marked contrast to Scotland, for example, where two thirds of those who die by suicide are in employment.’
‘The rates of suicide in students are generally lower than in the general population.’
‘Alcohol abuse and dependence (not depression) was the leading axis I mental disorder associated with suicide.’
Unsurprisingly, the problems we are describing in NI strongly linked to trauma
The incidence of hospital presentation for self-harm in Northern Ireland is 70% higher than in the Republic of Ireland (342 vs 198 per 100 000) and, in keeping with other studies, the rates are higher in urban areas than in rural areas.’
‘There is a strong association between self-harm & social deprivation, particularly for men. By contrast to other UK studies of self-harm, self-harm rate for men was higher than the rate for women.’
‘Alcohol was involved in a higher proportion of self-harm presentations in Northern Ireland than in the Republic of Ireland. In keeping with national trends, alcohol use was more common in men who presented with self harm than for women who presented with self harm.’
‘Opioid-based drugs were more common in Northern Ireland presentations than in the Republic of Ireland.’
‘One in ten adolescents reported self-harm by the age of 16 years, with 6% reporting self-harm in the past 12 months.’
‘The association between internet and social media use and wellbeing is likely to be weak, having its largest effect upon individuals who are already vulnerable, and social media use can be beneficial.’
Ive read before that same-sex marriage helps to reduce suicide-rates
‘Consistent with other studies, substance dependence was also strongly associated with suicide.’
‘Given the role of alcohol and drugs in suicide risk, it is crucial that there is a regional alcohol and drugs strategy.’
&, finally, the conclusion.......
When looking at Covid maps like this one (see below) it is important to bear all this in mind i.e pre-Covid, NI had much poorer health *in general* than the Republic & thus it is unsurprising that their Covid outcomes are worse than the Republic too https://twitter.com/VictimOfMaths/status/1344371642361925632?s=20
There are a lot of quote-tweets of that Colin Angus tweet which evince a lack of appreciation of this point & without an appreciation of this point it is impossible to make sense of that map in the tweet by Colin Angus.
Sidebar: interesting to note that the study reports that marriage is associated with a reduced risk of suicide. It links to this 2010 study, which reports the following:-
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Corcoran/publication/26820914_Suicide_and_marital_status_in_Northern_Ireland/links/0c9605172b5b931843000000/Suicide-and-marital-status-in-Northern-Ireland.pdf
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Corcoran/publication/26820914_Suicide_and_marital_status_in_Northern_Ireland/links/0c9605172b5b931843000000/Suicide-and-marital-status-in-Northern-Ireland.pdf
‘We find that being single (compared to cohabiting/married) increases risk of accidental/suicide death for men (but not for women), whereas having dependent children is associated with lower risk of preventable mortality for women but less so for men.’ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513814000889
So, in other words, according to that study, being married reduces the suicide risk in men, less so in women. Whereas, having kids reduces the suicide-risk in women, less so in men.
This is something Ive tweeted about before https://twitter.com/post_liberal/status/1339403181739159552?s=20
&, as the Lancet study notes, this finding - that marriage is associated with a reduced risk of suicide esp in men - applies to homosexuals as well as to heterosexuals
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2604258
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2604258
So, in conclusion, the term ‘deaths of despair’ (coined by Deaton & Case to describe the rise in deaths by suicide & drugs/alcohol amongst non-Hispanic whites in the USA,) may well be a term that is applicable also to NI & in terms of doing something about that problem.......
We should think about the problem not just in terms of economics & the provision of public-services, as important as they are, but also in regards to what we can do to make it easier for people to get married, have families & also, if it all possible, to stay together happily.
The dilemma is that left-wingers understand that these kinds of probs require investment/funding in public-services & right-wingers understand the importance of institutions like marriage but rarely is an appreciation demonstrated that BOTH things are needed.
Just imagine if there was a political philosophy that combined those two elements? i.e left-of-centre when it came to economics combined with a moderate social-conservatism? Just imagine eh?!
If only there was a political philosophy out there that fitted this description? If only!
