President Mary McAleese warned us back in April. "There is no reason to panic," she said, "but there is every reason to be prepared and to galvanise ourselves to look after those at risk." The president, speaking at a conference organised by the bereavement support group Console seven months ago, was talking about the impact that the recession could have on the number of suicides in Ireland. Many studies have shown the devastating consequences of an economic crash on the mental health of populations, and figures released last week confirmed such dreadful suspicions. During the first three months of this year, a 43% increase in suicides was recorded by the Central Statistics Office.

There are obvious repercussions of an economic crash that are immediately grasped: job losses, foreclosures on homes, a collapse in disposable income, and so on. But perhaps the greater effects are felt on the fringes – the social impact of a recession. Everything is interconnected: depression and stress associated with economic hardship; a loss of self-esteem and self-worth when an individual's job vanishes; an increase in domestic violence due to aggravated stress between couples struggling to make ends meet or even stay afloat; crime figures rising; beggars becoming more aggressive as they find it increasingly difficult to source money from people who simply have no spare change; more homeless people on the streets as sources for rental income dry up; alcohol and drugs becoming a self-medicating source to forget the tough times; reckless methods of generating income like gambling becoming an ill-advised option; and the ultimate reaction to one's financial world imploding – taking one's life.

As the end of the year and decade looms, we seem to have moved from waiting for the recession to personally affect us, to ironically indulging in it (remember that spate of 'recession parties'?), to truly struggling. Those lucky enough to still have jobs – and everyone left in employment is meant to feel 'lucky' as a job is now apparently a privilege and not a presumption – have hugely increased workloads, depriving many people of sleep, rest, time with their families and friends.

There have been many 'high-profile' suicides, not that one life should ever be valued over another. The Irish property mogul Patrick Rocca, René-Thierry Magon de La Villehuchet who lost over €1bn to Bernie Madoff, German billionaire Adolf Merckle who lay down in front of a train rather than confront the huge losses he was facing, Chicago real estate king Steven Good, who shot himself in his Jaguar. And between January and March in Ireland, there were 106 funerals for people who took their own lives, 106 needless deaths, 106 families devastated, thousands of friends and loved ones in mourning.

It is very tempting to attach this spike in suicide to our dire economic situation. A study earlier this year published in the Lancet by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine examined 30 years of economic downturns and found that for every 3% rise in unemployment, suicide rose by 4.5%.

Recession depression and the rise in suicide figures show we attached far too much meaning and importance to finance over the past decade, and so, when money dries up, some view their lives as not worth living. A generation has been taught that money and possessions were the be-all and end-all, and without it, you're worthless. How are we supposed to convince ourselves and each other that these things we attached so much significance to are in fact transient consequences of an unrealistic economic bubble?

Ten years ago, in the film American Beauty, the lead character Lester Burnham berated his wife's materialism: "This isn't life," he said, "it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts." And it is nuts. But it's over now, and we have to suffer the consequences.

Ireland's suicide rate is quite low in international terms, but amongst young men we have the highest rate of suicide in the EU. At a time where 'cuts' are looming across every possible sector, the one cut that should be spared is that to organisations which help people through difficult times.

The government has an almighty duty to protect the lives of workers who are suffering the consequences of politicians' incompetence. It may be the end of our economy for the foreseeable future, but it's not the end of the world, and no life should be lost because of a waiting stack of bills, a threatening bank, or a P45.

Money is worth something, but it's not worth that.

umullally@tribune.ie