Desperate struggle to cut rise in suicides
Canterbury police inundated
‘‘We don’t think it’s going to be lower this year. It is really worrying that nothing anyone is doing is managing to bring it down.’’
Canterbury chief of psychiatry Peri Renison
Canterbury police are being called to 10 attempted suicides a day as a leading psychiatrist warns ‘‘nothing anybody is doing’’ has proved effective at cutting suicide rates.
According district health board figures, suicide attempts in the region have increased 60 per cent in the past five years, compared to a 52 per cent increase nationwide.
Canterbury police have been called to 2752 suicide attempts this year, a 10 per cent increase on the same period last year.
An additional 923 call outs were related to mental health.
Canterbury’s chief of psychiatry Peri Renison said the health board was ‘‘very worried’’ about the region’s suicide rate.
‘‘We don’t think it’s going to be lower this year.
‘‘It is really worrying that nothing anyone is doing is managing to bring it down.’’
Canterbury district commander Superintendent John Price said police were ‘‘very concerned’’ by the number of attempted and suspected suicides in the region.
Mental health made up 22 per cent of the police’s workload in the district.
There were weeks where police were called to a suicide a day in Canterbury, he said.
Price said it was ‘‘really hard’’ on the officers involved. ‘‘These are terrible events and ... they take a toll on our staff as well.’’
Police met almost daily with agencies, including the district health board, to discuss ways to combat the issue.
In the 2016-17 year, 79 people within the region appear to have taken their own lives, according to provisional statistics. Nationally, 606 Kiwis died by suicide in that year.
One of those was a 32-year-old, suspected of taking his own life in June just two days after leaving Hillmorton Hospital. He leaves behind a young daughter.
Jonny (not his real name) was one of the 178 mental health patients nationwide who died by suspected suicide in that year, including 26 Canterbury patients.
His family believe the system failed him and are sharing his story in a bid to ‘‘wake up the powers that be’’.
His mother said she was lodging a complaint with the Health and Disability Commissioner about Jonny’s care.
Renison said about 300 people were seen by Christchurch’s crisis resolution teams each week, most of them experiencing suicidal ideation.
‘‘That’s over 10,000 people a year. You can’t put them all in hospital and you can’t put a [suicidal] young person in hospital indefinitely.’’
While concerns had been raised about the number of hospital beds available, Renison said the decision to admit someone was
Had the cards fallen differently, another Edmund could have adorned the Kiwi five-dollar note and earned global praise for his mountaineering feats.
Edmund Cotter took part in the first New Zealand Himalayan expedition in 1951 with Sir Edmund Hillary, two years before Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to ascend Mt Everest.
Cotter died in Christchurch on Thursday, aged 90. Guy Cotter said his father was always adventurous.
‘‘From when he was quite young, he used to go tramping in the hills in and around Arthur’s Pass and other Canterbury mountain regions, like the Arrowsmiths. ‘‘His father was also a mountaineer, so that got him into it.’’
In 1951, Cotter was one of four men, along with Hillary, George Lowe and Earle Riddiford, who took part in the first New Zealand Himalayan expedition.
Their mission was to conquer Mukut Parbat, an unclimbed mountain. Cotter and Riddiford, and a Sherpa guide named Pasang Dawa Lama, reached the summit but Hillary and Lowe never made it to the top.
This success impressed the British, and led to the inclusion of Hillary and Lowe in the famous 1953 expedition, where Hillary and Norgay summitted Mt Everest for the first time.
The two climbers who actually completed the climb of Mukut Parbat, Cotter and Riddiford, were not chosen for the trip.
‘‘Naturally anybody would have loved to be considered for future expeditions, but I don’t think he felt animosity towards those guys,’’ Guy Cotter said. ‘‘He took it all in his stride. ‘‘He was actually very forgiving about all of that in the end.’’
Cotter said his father held a friendship with George Lowe for many years and often visited him in the UK.
‘‘A big part of [climbing] for him was sharing the experience with other people.
‘‘He was a very social person and always maintained a love of climbing and the fellowship of the rope.’’
Cotter remained an active climber for many years, and was part of a team that completed first ascents of mountains across South America.
‘‘That was the sort of thing he loved doing, the lightness and freedom of being [part of] a small group in new mountains and new terrain,’’ Guy Cotter said, ‘‘It was really the heyday of semi-technical mountain exploration.’’
Old age did not stop Cotter, and he joined his son on several expeditions to Nepal.
Guy Cotter now runs Adventure Consultants, a mountaineering company that leads climbing expeditions up Mt Everest and other peaks.
‘‘He came with us to Everest Base camp one time when he was
70 years old, and one time he walked in with us when he was 80.
‘‘He just loved the intensity of everything that was going on, it was light years away from the type of expeditions they were doing back in the early days.’’
Cotter died peacefully at Edith Cavell Rest Home, in Christchurch, on October 19. A funeral would be held at The McFaddens Centre, in St Albans, Christchurch, at 1pm on October
25.
‘‘He had a lot of friends from all sorts of different age groups, and touched a lot of people’s hearts,’’ Guy Cotter said.