The Western Trust area experiences the highest rate of suicidal ideation and self-harm in the North.
That’s according to Mental Health Champion Professor Siobhan O’Neill, who highlighted that the Trust recorded an incidence rate of 355 hospital presentations for self-harm per 100,000 population.
She raised the issue at a special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council.
To tackle the issue, Professor O’Neill pointed to Scotland’s Distress Brief Intervention: Connected Compassion Support programme.
This approach is planned to be to Health Minister Robbie Butler, also outlining that the system could save more than £9 million annually.
Professor O’Neill says the rates have increased across Northern Ireland, but the Western Trust area’s rates are much higher than the North’s average.
She says the area is the poorest in terms of mental health help services, and outlines what needs to be done in order to fix this:
