‘A total community responsibility’
Shaun Robinson has bipolar disorder. He tried to commit suicide – he’s open about it. ‘‘Friends, colleagues and family were the first line of support,’’ he says. Clinical support came second.
Now, Robinson is Mental Health Foundation chief executive, and he believes this country, with the highest rate of youth suicide in the world, can one day put an end to people killing themselves.
Last year, 569 deaths were rules as suicide or suspected suicide in New Zealand – the highest figure since the coroner’s office started to release the statistics. According to the Ministry of Health, every year a further 150,000 people think about committing suicide, around 50,000 make a plan to take their own life, and around 20,000 attempt suicide.
‘‘Zero Suicide is a total community responsibility,’’ Robinson says. It brings together decision-makers, clinicians and individuals at risk.
Reducing suicide rates to zero seems a lofty ideal, given New Zealand has higher suicide rates for teenagers between 15 and 19 than a long list of OECD and European Union countries.
Not talking about it isn’t helping; preventing media from reporting on suicide isn’t helping – so what will help? The National Zero Suicide Forum last week sought to find out.
The zero suicide concept emerged from the ambitious Perfect Depression Care initiative at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit in 2013.
Every single patient there is screened for risk of suicide, and care is then tailored to those identified as being at-risk.
Suicide death rates dropped to zero, just three years after implementation. It has New Zealand DHBs and mental health organisations scratching their heads.
Looking toward a zero suicide rate is only possible if talking about mental health and suicide becomes destigmatised and normalised, Robinson says.
Unlike other countries, New Zealand has strict laws on media coverage.
Though a recent law change relaxed the reporting rules slightly, there is still an underlying fear that talking about suicide, or the mere mention of the word, could incite copycat behaviour.
But it is an important conversation to have, particularly at community level, Robinson says. ‘‘If a community is equipped to have the conversations around the extremity of these thoughts and feelings, in a non-stigmatised, listening, caring way that leads to support – that’s when we’re really going to make some progress.’’
A recent University of Auckland study found Pacific youth were three times more likely to attempt suicide than Pakeha youth.
Abba Fidow, senior manager of Pasifika health initiative Le Va, says those with the most to say about suicide are often left out of the conversation.
Since Le Va was launched in 2014, more than 300,000 Pasifika people have been reached through its FLO (For Life) suicide prevention programme.
A Zero Suicide programme in New Zealand would incorporate Pasifika voices: it would be strengthbased and youth based, he adds.
It is about engaging with people. Suicide prevention programmes need to physically come down to people to hear their voice, but also lift them up.