Elderly choose death
Struggling to write between the lines Ernest Izett scrawled his goodbyes on a piece of paper and left it on his bedside table.
Once the 91-year-old couldn’t read, watch telly or listen to music he didn’t want to live anymore.
‘‘We only have one chance of life and I shall not be blind and a burden on others,’’ he wrote.
He’s one of nine people living in aged care facilities who killed themselves between 2016 and 2017, according to material released under the Official Information Act.
And it seems to be a recent spike. Between 2007 and 2012 there were no suicides committed by older people in residential care on record, University of Auckland old age psychiatry researcher, Gary Cheung, said.
Four of the nine suspected suicides over the last two years are provisional and pending the coroner’s final finding. The other five closed cases were four men and one woman.
Those residents were from Thames, Tauranga, Whitianga, Whakatane and Rotorua.
However the nine cases don’t include suicides in retirement villages and shouldn’t be taken as ‘‘representing every such instance’’, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Cheung, one of the only researchers of elderly suicide in New Zealand, heard of a couple of suspected suicide cases in Auckland rest homes last year, too.
Frontline aged care staff need to know how to screen older people for depression. When someone is suicidal, workers need to know what to do.
But there’s a lack of literature and awareness around elderly suicide, he said. Older men have one of the highest rates of suicide in New Zealand, he said.
‘‘There [is] no protocol, we’re not prepared.’’
While the spike could be a natural fluctuation, it also could be a reflection of more people in aged care facilities, Cheung believes. And with home support available, these days older people tend to move to rest homes later in life, with worse health.
‘‘So often people are more unwell now by the time they come to residential care. And physical [illness] is a risk factor
‘‘Some of the cases, it could be euthanasia-like suicide.
‘‘Certainly we need to monitor that quite closely.’’
Death wishes aren’t rare in older people. In a study of over 65-year-olds being assessed for home support and long term aged residential care, 9.5 per cent presented death wishes such as ‘‘I would rather be dead’’.
In a written statement New Zealand Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace said most people are less socially isolated in rest home care. He said without more information it was difficult to draw any conclusions about the cases in question.
Ernest was a resident of a rest home in Tauranga when he killed himself in April last year, according to the coroner’s findings.
His daughter Janne Izett had known her dad worried about dying slowly. After watching his wife – and children’s mother – die slowly from motor neuron disease in 1987, he wouldn’t have wished the same on anyone.
As a former farmer, his approach to life was pragmatic, she said.
‘‘He said if an animal hurt itself ... it was cruel for the animal to be left suffering.
‘‘He wanted his death not to be termed as suicide, but sort of self-euthanasia.’’
While Janne had desperately tried to prevent Ernest from killing himself, she understood that he had had enough and wished he hadn’t gone through it alone.
‘‘He knew not to say anything to me or anyone else.
‘‘I just wish that they could have just given him an injection and he wouldn’t have had to do what he did.’’
When Ernest first expressed a desire to die, he was put into hospital under 24/7 watch. After that, precautions were put in place to stop him. Going to live in a rest home was one of them.
He had a happy couple of years there but after a bad fall, his health deteriorated, he was lonely and he’d had enough. A caregiver found his body.
In his final note, Ernest said he had never expected to live until 80, let alone 91. In his suicide note Ernest said he had been ‘‘totally cared for’’ by both Janne and the rest home.
‘‘I have enjoyed my life,’’ he wrote. ‘‘This is a huge effort to write this, my last note, so goodbye all, and thanks once again.’’