LIMERICK Gardai responded 500 times to vulnerable people entering or seeking to enter the River Shannon in the past five years, sparking calls for more funding for local mental health services.
The shocking statistic was provided by the Minister for justice Helen McEntee to Aontú Councillor Sarah Beasley who said “it shows the depth of anguish and despair that people are experiencing and point to the need for much greater Government resources to help people suffering with mental health issues”.
“Mental health is a huge problem in Limerick City, and we have an over reliance on the voluntary sector who are doing an inordinate amount of work, and without them, people would be lost,” Cllr Beasley said.
Calling on the government to pump “more resources into services to help people living with mental illness and isolation”, Ms Beasley offered that “loneliness and isolation is a growing problem”.
The Limerick Aontú representative highlighted a recent report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) “which ranked Ireland as the loneliest country in Europe”.
The survey found that 20 per cent of people in Ireland reported they felt lonely most or all of the time, whereas the highest level in the EU where the average is 13 per cent.
“The WHO has declared loneliness to be a ‘global public health threat’. It cuts across all sectors of our community with both young and old at serious risk,” said Cllr Beasley.
“I firmly believe that the twin crises of spiralling housing prices and cost of living expenses are having a terrible effect on people’s mental health. They have no hope, and they are caught in a cycle of despair, they literally can’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.”
“A house is so much more than a roof over one’s head; it is a sanctuary, a place of belonging and without it people feel adrift and disconnected,” Cllr Beasley said.
Highlighting the “Trojan work” of voluntary groups such as Limerick Suicide Watch and the Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention (LTSP) that patrol the banks for the River Shannon in the city, helping vulnerable people, Cllr Beasley said Aontú has invited LSTP to make a presentation to TDs and Senators to outline their need for a permanent base by the river.
“To date they still have no permanent base, which is a terrible shame as they are literally a lifeline for people,” said Cllr Beasley.
“Everyone in Limerick dreads to hear the (rescue) helicopter in the sky as it usually means a poor desperate person has entered the river”.
