As Ireland continues to suffer from a economic seizure and unemployment has reached a historical record high children are feeling the brunt depression as much as adults.

Each week a voluntary organization in Dublin trying to fight suicide in Ireland greets between five and 10 new child patients.

Pieta House, an organization who work to prevent suicide and self harm are concerned by the increase in children who are considering self harm and suicide. Joan Freeman, the chief executive of the organization said that figures for 2010 continues they way they’re going the will see a 50 percent increase on new clients from 2009.

She said “Children are usually the ones who will experience quietly the distress that is happening within the family.”

Freeman commented on the worrying about of visitors to the organization between the ages of 12 and 13-years-old.

“If demand continues we will have treated around 1,300 people in one year. The youngest person we have seen who was suicidal was seven years old and the oldest was 80,” said Freeman.

“While it is often the parents who are struggling to cope with the stresses and strains the recession puts on family life, it is often the younger children who are suffering as a result.”

This April Pieta House treated 800 people. That is compared to 103 last April. They have had to increase the amount of therapists working at the voluntary institute to accommodate the high numbers.

Just seven months after the tragic suicide of the Irish 15-year-old Phoebe Prince these figures are yet another reminder that depression is not just an adult problem.