Mum whose son took his own life launches petition for suicide crisis centres here
Heartbroken mother Hester Glenn is campaigning for specialist facilities to help people feeling suicidal, on the first anniversary of her late son's death.
Last updated 13th Feb 2018
23-year-old Jack Glenn died by suicide a year ago today.
His mother Hester has launched an online petition for specialist suicide crisis centres to be set up across Northern Ireland.
Speaking to Downtown Cool FM as part of their 'Invest in Life' campaign, Hester said Jack's life may have been saved if he had an acute facility to go to with specialist qualified medical professionals:
"Obviously Jack didn't want to speak to me or his dad or any of his family and if there was a centre like this, people might go there and speak to someone who's qualified to know what to do.
"A centre like this would help save lives."
She says she wants to call a centre in the north west 'Jack's Place' in memory of her late son:
"I would never have thought of this, I never thought this was ever going to come into my life.
"But what can I do now I've lost Jack but if I can help some other family.
"I want other people never to forget Jack and it would keep his memory alive."
An eight week search operation was launched to retrieve Jack's body from the river Foyle.
During the search Hester said she witnessed firsthand the extent of suicide in Northern Ireland:
"While we were down at the water, we seen people who were suicidal.
"The PSNI were informed, they lifted the person and took them to A and E and when they went into A and E, they were able to deal with their physical problems but there was no one there to deal with their mental problems.
"Then they just discharged the person, they were going to obviously go out and try to do the same thing again."
Hester has called on politicians to set aside the contentious issues in the recent talks and make mental health a priority:
"We saved 52 lives while Jack was in the water and this past year there has been quite a few more.
"There's someone in the water at the minute, there's another lady, does the politicians not see this?
"They would need to open their eyes and just see what's going on round their community, round their own country.
"Get their act together and sit down and realise there is a lot of mental health issues out there.
"Forget about all these things...languages, gay marriages... mental health is a big issue and they really need to pump more money into mental health."
Hester says she hopes by speaking out and raising awareness of the issue, politicians will consider establishing acute mental health crisis centres to help people who are suicidal:
"They maybe might sit down and think, Irish languages, gay marriages whatever, is not a big priority in this country, it's mental health."
To mark the first anniversary of his death, Hester and her family are holding a remembrance service at the exact time of Jack's death.
Hester is hoping she can bring about some change for people struggling with suicidal thoughts in future.
Sign the petition here.