ALCOHOL ABUSE

The highest levels of binge drinking in Europe occurs among 15-16 year olds in Ireland
71% of 14-19 year olds drink up to five drinks in a typical week.
Alcohol is the 2nd biggest factor of bad mental health
Between 1989 and 1999 consumption of alcohol in Ireland increased by a staggering 41 per cent
Between 15and 25of admissions to accident and emergency units were alcohol-related.
There has been a four-fold increase over the last five years in the number of women who had been so drunk they could not remember if they had been sexually assaulted.
Alcohol consumption has increased here on a per capital basis by 46 per cent from 1989 to 2000.

SUICIDE

There has been more than a 700% increase in suicide since the sixties.
There is one suicide every 82 minutes in UK and Ireland.
Suicide accounts for 18% of all deaths.
Ireland is number 16 for the highest suicide rates per capita worldwide.
Up to 10,000 cases of attempted suicide are being treated by Irish hospitals every year
75% of suicides are by males.
Suicide is now the most common cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds in Ireland.
A disturbing feature is the level of the male suicide rate, which accounts for 80% of deaths. There is an increased suicide rate in males due to hopelessness while at the same time Ireland has been booming economically. Why is this?
Males find it:
1. Harder to find a role and an identity in society.
2. Young males are often lost.
3. If unemployed they are unsuccessful. They feel discarded
and have increased likelihood of considering suicide.
4. They tend to se the strategy of the stiff upper lip/machismo.
5. Females rearing children in some ways has not changed over the years but of course the massive increase in working outside the home has. Nevertheless in agricultural communities women always worked on the farm so it not that radically new.
Dublin: 101 people died in 2005 from suicide, 79 were male, 22 female.

DIVORCE

The average divorce rate in the EU is 40 marriages out of 100. The smallest divorce rate is in Ireland is only 16%
The number of people listing their status as divorced has risen by 70% in the past 4 years, the census reports.
In 1992 the figures showed 35,100 divorced people in Ireland; in 2006 that number was 59,500.
Approximately 45,000 couples are separated in Ireland and 20 percent of children are born to unwed mothers
CENSUS 2002: The number of divorced people in the State has more than trebled