Stephen Fry, who suffers from bipolar disorder, has opened up about a suicide attempt last year. Fry - the President of a mental health charity called Mind - explains that he is "the victim of my own moods".
In a separate incident, Michael Jackson's daughter Paris was hospitalised following a suspected attempt to take her own life. The 15 year-old is "physically fine" according to reports.
Yesterday, Cavan goalkeeper Alan O'Mara spoke to Off the Ball about his own battle with depression. He observed that "when you're driving home on a motorway at 140 miles per hour and you genuinely think twice about smashing your car into a concrete wall, that's when you know something is wrong. I just wanted to get that voice to be quiet."
Comedian Ruby Wax has also opened up again about her own battles with mental illness.
Many individuals and organisations have stressed the need to educate young people about issues related to mental health and suicide, as well stressing the importance of more support facilities to help students understand and cope with these issues.
Amnesty International write "at the moment neither children nor teachers are getting sufficient support on mental health in schools. By ensuring we adopt a “whole-school” approach in an early intervention setting, we can have a truly positive affect on people’s education prospects, their mental health, their teachers, their families, their classmates and ultimately society as a whole."
Although Social Political and Health Education (or SPHE) is offered by schools during the Junior Cert cycle, there is no comparative subject for Leaving Cert students.
As many students will first experience these issues as they face the challenges of adolescence (not to mention the increased stress of the senior cycle), should SPHE or an equivalent be expanded throughout a teenager's time in secondary school?
Or would the resources be better spent developing more robust school counselling and information services rather than adding another compulsary subject to an already busy curriculum?
