Volunteers who saved the same man twice in one night from taking his own life have slammed a lack of services for creating a “revolving door” at suicide danger spots.
Galway-based Claddagh Watch discovered the young man in a distressed state over the weekend on the banks of the River Corrib in the city.
The group’s founder yesterday hit out at the lack of care for people in mental distress after the man returned within an hour of being taken for medical assessment and tried to end his life a second time.
Arthur Carr said: “We went out on patrol at approximately 10.30 on Friday night.
“One of our members was approached by a family member of this young person, where they had left a suicide note and they were fully intent on taking their own lives by entering the River Corrib.
“Immediately we got on the radio and started a search and we came across the young man very, very quickly in an obviously distressed and bad state sitting on the wall of the river which is about 12ft high.
“He was in the process of coming to terms with himself, not really agitated, quite calm.
“It became quite clear to us that he was going to make that final leap and enter the water.
“We are talking about a river flowing at approximately 17-and-a-half kilometres per hour, if a person enters the water at that point there is very little chance. We engaged with the young man and as he made an attempt to jump we manhandled him back to safety.”
The Claddagh Watch team then dialled 999 and handed the man to the care of gardai to be taken for a medical assessment.
However as the volunteers continued their night patrol of the riverbanks, they spotted him back on the bridge and had to talk him down a second time
Mr Carr told RTE: “It is like a revolving door really and he arrived back on the bridge to our volunteers again.
“Again we had to engage with this person and try and calm him down. We got him to a safe place, we got him to a hotel which is adjacent to the bridge.”
The volunteers eventually convinced the man to contact a family member and seek further help from a psychiatric unit.
Mr Carr estimates they have turned at least 30 people back from taking their lives in just six months.
But he blasted the lack of services for them once they have been persuaded to seek help.
He said: “There is nothing there. This is not just happening in Galway, it is happening all around the country.
“When we take a person away from the river they are assessed, but they are being put back out on to the streets more or less straight away because there is nowhere for them.
“If someone has alcohol or drugs in them the psychiatric services don’t want to know.
“The frustration is that a high percentage are going to be back and we are going to have to deal with it again and the whole cycle starts again. There is no place for them.
“When you’ve got a young person that is making an attempt to jump into the water at 11 o’clock at night there is something seriously wrong with him.
“And if someone in a medical place can say he is OK to release, what are we doing? Why are we allowing this to happen? This should not be happening. These young people, they deserve a little bit of care, a little bit of attention.”
