Calls for action on suicide blackspots

EDINBURGH'S suicide blackspots have been revealed, leading to calls for urgent action to tackle deprivation in the city.

The number of people attempting to take their own life in the Capital's poorest areas is massively above the Scottish average, according to the latest figures.

Community leaders said that while millions of pounds were ploughed into deprived parts of Glasgow, Edinburgh was often overlooked for social funding.

In Granton each year, the number of people admitted to hospital after attempting suicide is 169 per cent above the Scottish average, while in Craigmillar it is 167 per cent. Areas such as Leith, Wester Hailes and Stenhouse also feature high on the list.

Forth councillor Elizabeth Maginnis, whose ward covers Granton, said people in the area were being overlooked in favour of the west of Scotland and she called for publicly-funded projects tackling issues like public health, poor housing and poverty to remember the problems in Edinburgh.

She said: "Just because the scale is bigger [in the west of Scotland], the intensity here remains the same. It seems that people plough millions of pounds into redeveloping these areas of Glasgow where the figures are high and just assume that Edinburgh is fine.

"Part of the problem is down to selling Edinburgh so well as a prosperous, successful city over the last few years.

"People used to refer to the city as a series of villages but I think now it is definitely divided into two parts; the side that is successful and wealthy and the side that wants to be."

Only two areas in Glasgow - Dalmarnock (292 per cent above) and Drumchapel (216 per cent above) - were worse for suicide attempts than Granton and Craigmillar. Ayr had the highest ratio of suicide attempts in Scotland with 313 per cent.

The Health Scotland figures suggest around 550 people attempt suicide in Edinburgh every year and are admitted to hospital as a result, although it is not clear how many actually succeed in taking their own life.

The figures also show that wealthier areas such as Morningside, Ravelston and Currie are way below the Scottish average.

Councillor Maginnis said the massive regeneration of the waterfront area - where many of the new homes are expensive flats - would not help the current population.

Portobello/Craigmillar councillor Mike Bridgeman agreed that addressing some of the social divisions in Edinburgh would help people in his ward.

He said: "My view is that if people have low self-esteem about where they are and their surroundings they perhaps think there's no other way out.

"Part of the way to address this is to rebuild the area, get it up and at them, and have it thriving again to give people more confidence about where they are."

Samaritans volunteer Bernie McIntosh said: "Sometimes problems can come at once and seem harder to deal with, and if you have poor social contact, low income and poorer circumstances this can seem so much harder."