The Minister for Mental Health has said the guidelines for reporting on suicide need to be strengthened.
Kathleen Lynch made the comments at the launch of the Samaritans Ireland Impact Report for 2012, which reveals a 3 per cent increase in the number of calls to the helpline in the past year, to just over 412 thousand.
1 in 6 of the calls related to the recession, up from 1 in 10 in 2011.
The Samaritans say new guidelines on the coverage of copycat suicides will be published in the New Year.
Louise Kelly reports……….
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