Suicide: Mum’s the word no more

Palmerston North students have broken a long-standing taboo by openly discussing suicide in an effort to raise awareness of mental health problems.

This comes as support services see a growing number of scholars, particularly international students, seeking help.

The Massey University Students’ Association (MUSA) event brought together students, staff, suicide-prevention advocates and community members to shine a light on the issue.

Bereaved mother Kim Mckelvey lost her daughter Jessica in a suspected suicide in March 2014. She spoke at Tuesday’s event, offering guidance, support and advice about mental health.

She said the event was acted as a sounding board for students to encourage them to speak up about how they were feeling.

The MUSA lounge was full of food, music, colouring-in and games, to make the event interactive. MUSA executive and psychology student Georgia Feekes said being a student could be stressful while balancing studies, jobs, work and relationships.

She said it was great to raise awareness and to encourage people to ask for help.

‘‘I think mental heath issues are still treated as taboo. The more we talk about it the more we can hopefully get people to open up and actually help.’’

Advocacy co-ordinator Kerry Howe said students could feel like they were under a lot of pressure.

She said generally there had been an increase in students, in particular international students, seeking help for stress, pressure and advice around mental health.

Mckelvey said just listening to someone with concerns was an act that spoke loudly.

In 2014/15 the number of suicides in New Zealand peaked at 564.

In the Midcentral DHB region, there were 216 suicides between July 2007 and June 2015, according to provisional figures.