Victims’ group: Suicide is a searing pain unlike any other and it can often psychologically torture those left behind

As a SEFF (South East Fermanagh Foundation) family we come together to express solidarity with all within our family and beyond who have been impacted by suicide.

We are conscious that there are many broken hearts within our immediate SEFF Family but also right across society.

Suicide is a searing pain unlike any other and it can often psychologically torture those left behind — the endless what ifs can become almost over powering.

For too long the issue of suicide has carried connotations of a crime having been committed by the individual taking his/her life. We do not subscribe to this view.

There are many reasons why different people complete suicide; many reasons why they view it to be the only way out or forward.

As a society we need to become kinder to one another, we need to become more emotionally available for one other.

Suicide is a permanent course of action which extinguishes the opportunity for renewal or a change in circumstances.

We know that in Northern Ireland that the legacy of the terrorist campaign continues to this day — the impact means that many further lives are being stolen.

We also know that there is a high concentration of individuals returning from theatres of war or unrest who are plagued with the horrors they have witnessed and which has resulted in many taking their own lives.

But beyond the issues of ‘The Troubles’ and those serving within our armed forces, there are many other people who experience a sense of darkness within their lives, a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of profound failure (however illogical) and that there is a sense in their minds that everyone else would be better off without them.

Top to bottom within our society (and it begins within the home) we must begin to foster a new value system, the way many of us are living is contributing towards creating the chaos within our minds, we are forgetting what truly matters — family, our health, our happiness and our own spirituality and sense of being.

With a new Mental Health Champion in place in Siobhan O’Neill and the additional focus on mental health, we must see a more joined up approach in the delivery of services, both statutory and also within the community and voluntary sector.

The appointment of a Veterans Commissioner in Danny Kinahan must also signal a step change in the approach of defence and Ministry of Defence in these matters. Soldiers when finishing their service must continue to have your focus and dare, we say — care and compassion.

Within SEFF we offer a range of services and supports intended to promote positive mental health and wellbeing and we encourage anyone who is feeling detached from life, from family, from work, from relationships, from themselves.

Contact us on: 028 677 23884 and speak to our Health and Wellbeing Team which includes caseworkers but also our newly established Clinical Team.

SEFF’s message is simple but clear:

Each of our Lives Matters and we must live our Lives as opposed to merely existing.

• Kenny Donaldson is spokesman for SEFF

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