Stephen’s Voice - Suicide Prevention

Stephen dedicated his life to helping others. He will continue to help others through his story. We are not anti-medication, we are pro-informed choice and transparency . If only we knew then what we know now. Read Stephen’s story here: facebook.com/107370804128296…

𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐍 𝐁𝐄𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐓: 𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐂 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐌 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝐏𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐒𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐀 𝐃𝐑𝐔𝐆 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘. Lauren Bennett, the 36-year-old singer whose voice featured on LMFAO's global hit Party Rock Anthem, has been the subject of an inquest following her death in May 2026. Her father, Richard Bennett, previously revealed that Lauren had suffered a severe reaction to prescribed medication months before her death. The family had rallied around her, trying to support her through an incredibly difficult period. At the recent inquest, it was heard that Lauren had continued to report distress about the effects of prescribed medication. She had been receiving specialist mental health care and had met with mental health services just days before her death. Reports also indicate that she had stopped taking some medication weeks before she died. And this brings us to an issue that Stephen's Voice has repeatedly challenged. We are deeply frustrated by the way medication-related harm can be overlooked when toxicology results are presented as though they tell the whole story. “A toxicology report prepared after her death found 'nothing of toxicological significance’”. Yet she was on numerous prescribed drugs before her death, with noted reactions. The fact that nothing of significance was found in Lauren's system does not answer the questions about what she had been prescribed, what adverse reactions she experienced, what happened when treatment was changed or stopped, and what she continued to suffer in the weeks and months that followed. A drug does not have to be detectable in someone's bloodstream for its effects to continue. We know that prescribed medication can cause prolonged and sometimes devastating effects, including protracted withdrawal, akathisia and persistent sexual dysfunction (PSSD). For some people, the consequences can continue for weeks, months and even years after medication has been discontinued. This is precisely why medication history matters. We cannot keep reducing complex cases to a toxicology result and overlooking the lived experience of the person who was harmed. We cannot keep treating the absence of a drug in the body at the time of death as though it somehow excludes the possibility of medication-related suffering beforehand. And we cannot continue to ignore the accounts of people and families who have witnessed profound changes following prescribed medication. We are not claiming to know what caused Lauren's death. That is not our place. But we believe the questions surrounding her medication history, reported adverse reactions and subsequent suffering deserve serious attention. Lauren was a daughter, a wife, a mother and a talented musician. She deserved to be heard, believed and properly supported. Her family deserved answers. Our thoughts are with everyone who loved Lauren 💜 At Stephen's Voice, we will continue to speak for those whose lives have been devastated by prescribed medication, and for the families left trying to make sense of what happened. #StephensVoice #PrescribedHarm

𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 by Mary Ann Kenny Recently Gretchen LeFever Watson wrote on Mad in America about the different boxed warnings on SSRI drugs in Canada and the US. Patients in Canada have been warned since 2004 that these medications carry a risk of suicide and violence including ‘harm toward others’. There are no age restrictions on such warnings. In the US, on the other hand, the ‘harm to others’ clause is not included on drug labels, while the suicide warning is limited to individuals aged 24 and under. As LeFever Watson points out, there is no reason to believe that these drugs affect people differently depending on which side of the US-Canada border they happen to live on. SSRIs have been implicated in many cases of homicidal ideation and actual homicide regardless of the location. Nor does the evidence show that the risk they pose of harm to others is limited by an arbitrary cut-off age. Here on the island of Ireland we now have a similar situation pertaining to SSRI drugs whereby patients on one side of the soft border dividing the island are to receive strengthened safety warnings while those on the other side won’t. Two weeks ago, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued new safety measures to improve how the risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and post-SSRI sexual dysfunction (PSSD) are communicated to patients taking antidepressants. A new boxed warning to highlight suicide risk will be included on patient information leaflets, and patients will be issued with a card reinforcing key safety messages in electronic and hard copy formats. Furthermore, healthcare professionals are advised to discuss with patients starting or changing an antidepressant dose the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and to highlight that some antidepressants are associated with PSSD. Such additional safety measures will be rolled out in Northern Ireland at the same time as elsewhere in the UK. However, no enhanced measures of this kind are planned for the Republic of Ireland. As a result, patients living either side of an invisible, open frontier that has no physical infrastructure will be given different information about the same drugs, impacting on patient safety and on the ability to provide informed consent to treatment. This disparity was raised last week in the Dáil by Mark Ward TD on behalf of families affected by drug-induced suicides. Would the Republic’s Health Products Regulatory Authority, HPRA, be adopting the measures implemented in the UK, Minister of State with responsibility for Mental Health, Mary Butler, was asked. Did the Irish Government have a plan to address the disparity? The response given by Minister Butler was unsatisfactory in several respects. First and foremost, it did not answer or even address the question posed. Instead, overall suicide rates were cited, as were differences in this respect between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and countries in southern Europe, where, the minister stated somewhat bafflingly, lower rates have been ‘put down to the fact there are some benefits from being in sunlight.’ Some benefits? Antidepressants were not mentioned at all; nor was the substantive question of how associated risks are communicated to patients on either side of the Irish border. The minister concluded by saying that the question would be referred to the Chief Medical Officer’s office and the Irish College of Psychiatry ‘because anything we do will have to be evidence-based.’ Bereaved families who requested that this question be asked in the Dáil deserved better from Minister Butler. Patients in the Republic also deserve better. The open border on our island facilitates the free movement of people and goods, and persistent sexual dysfunction and drug-induced suicidality don’t stop there either. Meanwhile in both the UK and the Republic of Ireland the risk of ‘harm to others’ is only alluded to indirectly in the small print of patient information leaflets as ‘hostility’, defined as aggression, oppositional behaviour and anger, and exclusively in relation to young people. No change to this will be made as a result of the MHRA’s new safety measures. Four different jurisdictions – Canada, the US, the UK and the Republic of Ireland – and four different sets of warnings. Many people are helped by SSRIs but some are seriously harmed by them. The risks are known and well evidenced: akathisia; suicidal thoughts and behaviour at any age; violence including harm to others; PSSD; severe withdrawal effects; and more. Patients everywhere should have access to the same kind and level of information about the same drugs in order to make informed decisions about whether to go on them in the first place. #StephensVoice #MaryAnnsVoice #YourVoice

🚨 PATIENT SAFETY MUST NOT STOP AT THE BORDER 🇮🇪🇬🇧 Families within our network are asking a simple but critically important question: Will patients in the South of Ireland receive the same strengthened antidepressant safety warnings recently announced by the UK’s MHRA? These measures include prominent warnings about suicidal thoughts and behaviours, patient safety cards, and recognition of potential longer-term risks after stopping antidepressants. During a Dáil exchange on 22 October, Mark Ward TD raised this issue, as requested by the families of Darren Connell and Jake McGill Lynch. The response from Minister Mary Butler referred to Ireland’s suicide high rates (adding that Northern Ireland’s rates are much higher) and insinuated that factors such as lack sunshine and vitamin D are a contributing factor to the unacceptable number of deaths by suicide. For families who have spent years raising concerns about antidepressant-related harm, this was deeply frustrating and felt like a dismissal of the very issue being raised. Together, our families have been highlighting for years the potential contribution of antidepressant prescribing and medication-induced harm to suicidal thoughts and behaviours. These concerns cannot simply be sidestepped by pointing to other factors associated with suicide. A subsequent written response from the Department of Health confirmed that the Minister has asked Professor Philip Dodd, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Consultant Psychiatrist, to engage with the HPRA regarding the MHRA’s measures. It also explained that Ireland operates within the European medicines regulatory framework, whereas the UK can take certain regulatory actions nationally. But this still leaves the central question unanswered: 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬? Consider two patients living in neighbouring communities, one in Fermanagh and one in Cavan. Both are prescribed the same medication. Both deserve to understand its potential risks. The border does not change human biology, nor does it remove the potential for medication-related harm. We recognise that medicines regulation must follow appropriate evidence and legal processes. But patients and families deserve more than an explanation of those processes. They deserve clarity about what action will be taken. We stand with the families in our network in asking: 🔹 Will the HPRA pursue the adoption of the strengthened warnings introduced by the MHRA? 🔹 If not, what evidence and reasoning justify a different approach for patients in Ireland? 🔹 What concrete steps will ensure patients receive clear information about the risks of suicidal thoughts and behaviours and potential longer-term effects after stopping antidepressants? Patients deserve transparency. Patients deserve informed consent. And patient safety should never depend on which side of a border someone lives on. We call on the Minister for Health, the HPRA and the relevant regulatory authorities to address these concerns directly and provide clear answers. Please share. These questions deserve to be heard. #StephensVoice #DarrensVoice #JakesVoice

💜 WORLD SUICIDE PREVENTION DAY 💜 Today, I want to give a huge shout-out to every campaigner, every bereaved family, every survivor, every person fighting for answers, accountability and change. I see you. I hear you. And I stand with you 🙏🏻 But if we are serious about preventing suicide, then we have to be prepared to have the difficult conversations too. Because you cannot expect meaningful change while ignoring what is being prescribed, how much is being prescribed, how these medications are promoted, and what happens when they cause severe reactions in people. Northern Ireland has some of the highest prescribing rates in the UK. It also has one of the highest suicide rates. So how can we genuinely expect suicide to fall if we continue to hand out medications that are known to carry warnings about suicidal thoughts and behaviours…..and if people who experience devastating medication-induced reactions are too often dismissed, misunderstood or told that the answer is simply more medication? Real suicide prevention has to include prevention of iatrogenic harm. And today feels particularly poignant because 10 years ago, Romain Schmitt died by medication-induced suicide. Ten years. And his parents are still fighting. Still speaking out. Still raising awareness. Still calling for safer prescribing. Still trying to make sure that what happened to their son does not happen to another family. Just think about that. A decade of grief……and instead of walking away, his parents have turned their pain into a fight for change. That is suicide prevention too. Listening to the families who have been through it. Listening to the people who say a medication changed them. Listening to those who developed akathisia. Listening to those living with devastating withdrawal and post-drug conditions. Listening when someone says, “I wasn't like this before I took the medication.” We cannot simply tell people to talk about suicide while refusing to talk about why some people become suicidal in the first place. We need to look at the causes. We need safer prescribing. We need genuine informed consent. We need honest warnings. We need better recognition of medication-induced akathisia and suicidality. And we need healthcare systems that listen when people say they have been harmed. We all need to stand together on this. Because suicide prevention shouldn't just be about what we do when someone reaches crisis point. It should also be about preventing the things that can push someone towards that crisis in the first place. Today, I stand with every family who has lost someone. Every person who has survived. Every campaigner who refuses to be silent. And especially the families who have spent years fighting to make sure their loved one's death was not in vain. Romain's parents are still fighting 10 years later. We should be listening. #WorldSuicidePreventionDay #WSPD2026 #SuicidePrevention #PrescribedHarm #PrescribedHarmAwareness #MedicationInducedHarm #Akathisia #SaferPrescribing #InformedConsent #StephensVoice