Shoes to carry suicide message to MPs
More than 500 pairs of shoes are being collected throughout the country to form a visual representation of the Kiwi lives lost to suicide.
Kerikeri woman Natalie Blakey is collating footwear on behalf of Yes We Care, a campaign by the Public Services Association.
The shoes - 579 pairs - are a representation of the number of New Zealanders who died from suicide from June 2015 to June 2016 (according to data from the Coroner’s Office). Of these 21 were from Northland.
They will form part of a roadshow from Cape Reinga on August 26,ending in Wellington, where shoes will be placed on the steps of Parliament on September 10 which is also International Suicide Prevention Day.
At each shoe event, a local person affected by suicide will tell their personal story, holding a pair of their loved ones shoes, while standing in front of the backdrop of the 579 pairs.
Blakey says it is a scary way of looking at how often suicide is happening.
She says her partner lost a close friend to suicide, so the cause is dear to her. ’’It’s not talked about, but it does happen - it’s scary to think that it happens so often. It will be a really big eye opener to see how many people should have been standing there.’’
Yes We Care co-ordinator Simon Oosterman says it will be a very strong and visual image of the Kiwis we have lost.
They are campaigning for the Government to hold an independent mental health inquiry and set a suicide reduction target, among other health issues affecting New Zealanders.
He says 200 families touched by suicide, wanted the organisation’s help to raise awareness around suicide prevention. ’’If the Govern- ment can’t even agree on a reduction target, what’s the chance of an aspirational goal of zero?’’
He says 77 per cent of New Zealanders also support an independent inquiry into mental health services.
Yes We Care is a health funding coalition of community groups, health service-users/patients and their families as well as people working in health. The coalition believes that every Kiwi should get the care they need when the need it, Oosterman says.
A separate roadshow will also make its way from Bluff to Wellington.