Mike Nesbitt says ministers will ‘get a lot more focused’ on suicide prevention

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said the Executive has agreed to “get a lot more focused” on tackling suicide in Northern Ireland.

On Tuesday a cross-party inquiry was launched at Stormont to examine how suicide prevention services are funded.

The inquiry, which was rolled out by the All-Party Group (APG) on Suicide Prevention and is supported by charity the Samaritans, called for a cross-departmental approach to tackle the societal factors that contribute to people taking their own lives.

There were 290 registered deaths due to suicide in Northern Ireland in 2024, up from 221 in 2023.

Men accounted for over three quarters of all suicides and it remains the leading cause of death for men under 50 in the region.

Mr Nesbitt said there is political will amongst executive ministers to take on more responsibility for suicide prevention within their departments.

He said: “Ministers do realise there are many big issues that cannot be fixed by a single minister or department, suicide is one of them.

“Because if you look at the social determinants of death by suicide, then you get into housing insecurity, financial instability, not just ill health or trauma, and we do already have a subgroup of the Executive on mental well being, resilience and suicide prevention, and we’ve agreed, after the last meeting, to get a lot more focused.

“So yes I think the will is there not just to talk about it, but to do something about it.”

Mr Nesbitt, the UUP MLA for Strangford, said that he had been approached by a constituent in his area who had lost her son to suicide, as she planned a vigil for him.

“So many people turned up, not because they knew the boy, but because they had lost somebody to suicide that we started a little group, community leaders, church leaders, and we found people were coming to us with funds, and we were using that for resilience initiatives in schools and in community associations,” he said.

“That’s the sort of thing I think could be replicated in other constituencies across Northern Ireland.”

Sein Fein MLA Orlaithi Flynn, chairwoman of the APG on Suicide Prevention said the inquiry is “about making sure our funding structures match the reality of how prevention works in communities”.

She said: “Up until now we’re seeing that the Department of Health has been the department that’s been held responsible for suicide and, of course, oversees to Protect Life 2, the suicide prevention strategy, it also oversees a 10-year mental health strategy.

“But we know it is a fact that the issue of suicide is extremely complex, extremely multifaceted, and it cuts across every single government department.”

She added: “What we’re trying to do is bring a focus to number one, what prevention work has already taken place in our local communities, and in many cases the work that is taking place, the suicide prevention, life saving work that’s taken place in local communities, isn’t being funded really by anyone.

“They’re not in receipt of funding from the Department of Health, because the core grant funding for those groups is very, very limited, and many, many groups don’t even secure that funding, and a lot of their funding is made up through fundraising, but yet they’re doing life saving preventative work in our local communities.”

Ms Flynn acknowledged that ministers are dealing with “a massive portfolio” and “a lot of important priorities”.

“So then whenever we talk about issues that actually cut across many departments, it’s how we can try and better get minds focused in terms of what every department can bring to the table and what role they can play in suicide prevention,” she said.

“The key message is that suicide prevention is everybody’s business.”

The Inquiry will explore how investment in suicide prevention could be shared more effectively across Health, Communities, Justice, Education and the department for the Economy.