3Ts (Turn the Tide of Suicide)

3Ts (Turn the Tide of Suicide) is a registered charity (CHY15710) founded to raise awareness of the problem of suicide in Ireland and to raise funds to help lower suicide rates through dedicated research, educational support and intervention.  The 3Ts receives no government funding but relies solely on fundraising and donations.

The No. 1 killer of young men in Ireland is not cancer, nor is it road traffic deaths, it is Suicide. Over 600 people in Ireland are estimated to die through suicide annually, one in six suicide deaths are males under 25 years, one in four are males under 35 years. There are a  staggering 11,000 presentations of deliberate self-harm annually to A & E Departments, a figure believed to represent only a fraction of cases.

Government funding is insufficient to adequately implement existing mental health and suicide prevention strategies and as a result there is no dedicated statutory service for people in suicidal crisis.  To meet this need, in 2009 the 3Ts joined with fellow charity, Console, to set up the 1LIFE Suicide Helpline Tel 1 800 24 7 100, Ireland's first dedicated 24 hour Suicide prevention and intervention helpline providing crisis intervention counselling and other services for anyone with any issue related to suicide or deliberate self-harm. 

It is part of the 3Ts ethos to distribute funds raised across a variety of projects and organisations working in the fields of deliberate self-harm and suicide prevention, intervention and post-vention, so in addition to funding the 1Life Helpline, donations to 3Ts contribute to a variety of 3Ts supported projects which can range from research programmes, to supporting small organisations working at grass roots level to helping fund training or support workshops.

The more awareness we have as a community about the issues of suicide and deliberate self-harm, the more opportunities we create to lobby for change. 3Ts has been involved in a variety of successful awareness projects which we believe have contributed to bringing the problem of suicide to the public consciousness.