Youth suicide minister’s top priority
Jonathan Coleman says a target to cut our national rate is still on the table, writes Olivia Carville
There would be “nothing worse” in life than losing a child to suicide, says Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman. In an exclusive interview for the
Herald’s Break the Silence series, Coleman reveals he has known people who have taken their own lives personally and also professionally, during his time working as a doctor. For the past four months the
Herald has repeatedly asked Coleman’s office for a sit-down interview with the minister for our special series on youth suicide, but we received only typed responses from his press secretary.
However, on Thursday Coleman broke his own silence, inviting the
Herald into his Beehive office to talk about what he deemed his “top priority”: youth suicide.
New Zealand’s youth suicide rates are “way too high”, Coleman said.
“One suicide is one too many so we’ve got to work on getting that rate down, no question about it.
“We just can’t have young people with their whole lives ahead of them taking their lives. It’s an absolute tragedy and anyone who reads your series would totally understand that,” Coleman said.
This is the final week of the Break the Silence series, which has been running in the Herald for the past five weeks. We will be looking towards solutions and ways to reduce our suicide rate over the coming days.
One possible solution raised by advocates is a national suicide reduction target. This had been suggested by an expert advisory panel, but was dumped over fears of government accountability earlier this year.
The rejection of the target saw well-known campaigner Mike King controversially step down from the panel and last week a target was again called for by a group of New Zealand parents who have lost children to suicide.
During the interview, Coleman announced that the target was not off the table. He said he recently met two international suicide prevention experts and had since asked his officials to look at the proposal again.
“I don’t have any philosophical objection to the target, but people have to realise it can’t be [just] a government target. It’s a whole-ofsociety thing and we are all responsible for getting the suicide rate down. You can’t just say, ‘Oh, we’re going to leave it to the Minister of Health’s office and the Government.’”
Every 67 hours a young person commits suicide in New Zealand. That’s more than one every three days or 130 a year. We have the highest teenage suicide rate in the developed world and the number of people taking their lives each year has remained relatively unchanged for the past two decades.
Mental health problems have skyrocketed internationally over the past few years and Coleman said every health minister in the Western world was now suddenly facing “this massive issue”.
“Every government is looking at new ways of doing things,” the minister said.
Eight years ago, 96,000 people accessed secondary mental health services in New Zealand. That figure ballooned to 168,000 last year, Coleman said, adding that social media and cyber bullying had placed even more pressures on today’s youth.
“These are tough problems and if they were easily solvable they would be, but we can’t stop trying. We’ve got to keep on trying to do better.”
Asked why New Zealand has the worst teenage suicide rate in the developed world, Coleman said: “I don’t think anyone has the exact answer to that.”
Part of the reason might be tied in with New Zealand not doing enough to build resilience and self-esteem in youth, the minister said.
“But, more important than speculating on a range of possible reasons is actually taking an evidence-based approach that starts to do something about that.”
Budget 2017 pushed an extra $224 million towards mental health and that funding boost will lead to new initiatives and prevention programmes being rolled out in coming months.
Coleman would not be drawn on details of those new initiatives, but he gave the Herald a “flavour” of what’s being discussed behind closed doors: building resilience in youth, early intervention and screening for mental health issues in youth and “listening to young people and what works for them”.
He said he has welcomed the recent national conversation about youth suicide, which he believes the Break the Silence series has helped to ignite.
“There would be nothing worse than losing a child in these circumstances or someone really close to you,” Coleman said.
“It is just an absolute tragedy in the true sense for anyone affected by this, but the assurance I can give is that we are committed to continuing to get those rates down and really doing something about this.”
One suicide is one too many so we’ve got to work on getting that rate down, no question about it. Jonathan Coleman, Health Minister
We just can’t have young people with their whole lives ahead of them taking their lives. It’s an absolute tragedy.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman says he has asked officials to consider again a target for reducing suicide in New Zealand.
The idea was suggested by an expert advisory panel, but dumped earlier this year over fears of government accountability.
Coleman spoke exclusively to the Herald ahead of the conclusion this week of our Break the Silence campaign, revealing that he had known people who had taken their own lives and tackling youth suicide was his “top priority”.
New Zealand has the second worst youth suicide rate in the developed world and the worst teen suicide rate.
— Jonathan Coleman, Health Minister