MP shares on family’s struggle
Labour politician says Kiwis’ ‘she’ll be right’ culture is killing people
ALabour politician has opened up about her family’s struggle with suicide and her own experiences battling depression, saying New Zealand’s “she’ll be right” culture is killing people and more open conversation is needed.
The Government yesterday announced it would be launching a suicide prevention office to curb New Zealand’s worsening suicide figures.
Suicide rates reached their highest levels on record in the year to July, with 685 deaths in the past year and a particularly sharp rise among youth, Ma¯ori and Pacific Island people.
Labour list MP Kiri Allan this week took to social media to talk about how the suicide a year ago of her niece, who was in her first year of university, had affected their family.
“This last year, you sort of look on at everybody that you love, like all my family, and see how much the hurt is, it’s so deep. And it’s so layered over so many different parts,” Allan said.
“That loss will be felt not just for years, but for lifetimes and maybe generations. Everybody reflects, feels, carries guilt for a really long time. Maybe forever.”
Allan told reporters why she wanted to share her family’s story.
“Maybe we could have spoken up a little bit earlier
and said: ‘Hey mate. It’s all right, it’s okay to talk. And that’s what hopefully sharing our stories now, hopefully that has an impact,” she said.
“I think in New Zealand we’ve got a real culture and there’s a real stigma around she’ll be right, toughen up, we don’t talk about that stuff.
“But, actually, I think that culture is literally killing us,” she said.
“She will be right. She will be right if we can have chat about it. She’ll be right if we can be honest about it.”
Long-time mental health campaigner Mike King joined Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Minister David Clark as they unveiled an update to the country’s suicide prevention strategy.
As part of its plan, the Government has launched a “Suicide Prevention Office” — one of the recommendations from a major inquiry into the state of the country’s mental health and addiction services.
The office will co-ordinate work between different government bodies to try to reduce suicide rates as well as monitoring the Government’s progress in the area.
It will initially be run out of the Ministry of Health before becoming a separate body run by a new Director of Suicide Prevention.