‘No evidence’ of increase in suicides
Police and the Mental Health Foundation say there is no evidence to back a claim that suicides have increased during the coronavirus lockdown.
The foundation has slammed the rumour as false and potentially dangerous.
A tweet on Saturday night claimed that an unnamed policeman had informed the tweeter of a massive increase in suicides occurring in New Zealand last week.
The tweet reached a wide audience, with National MP Judith Collins replying to say the news was ‘‘dreadful’’ and former NZ
Herald columnist Lizzie Marvelly retweeting it to followers.
Marvelly has since deleted the retweet.
But Police Assistant Commissioner Sandy Venables told
Stuff said there was no official data released yet, and numbers of mental health callouts appeared to be steady.
‘‘Our initial data, and based on what we know has happened in some overseas jurisdictions, we did expect to see an increase in mental health related calls for service as people struggle with the impact of isolation and the general stress of the pandemic,’’ Venables said.
‘‘While it is too early to provide official data, anecdotally we have seen calls for service to police in relation to mental health and self-harm related matters remain steady, with no significant spike or decline.’’
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the rumour was wrong and spreading it could increase harm by normalising suicide.
‘‘There is absolutely no truth to this rumour,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘It is totally irresponsible and untrue.
‘‘There are very few people in the country who are able to accurately assess numbers of suicides at a national level in real time,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘It is critically important not to contribute to misunderstandings and false information about suicide in New Zealand.’’
He said spreading such rumours could in fact lead to increased harm.
‘‘These rumours and their accompanying commentary imply that suicide is an expected, understandable and proportionate response to Covid-19, and that’s both untrue and an extremely unhelpful thing to suggest.
‘‘Whenever we have a public discussion about suicide, people who are suicidal or are vulnerable to suicide are always listening,’’ Robinson said.