Where’s the outrage and action on the suicide statistics?
Well, that’s that for another year. New Zealand has plumbed new depths with record high suicide figures, but where’s the outrage? The compassion, the urgency?
In the year to the end of June, 579 Kiwis took their own lives, compared to 564 during the previous year.
That’s 579 real New Zealand families torn apart by anguish, anger, sorrow and guilt, that they lost someone they love and for whatever reason, were unable to help.
Those families should have been able to call mental health services or their GPs and received all the support they needed.
Instead, figureheads released statements expressing sadness and disappointment.
When she released the yearly figures, Chief Coroner Judge Deborah Marshall rightly pointed out that the rate remained stubbornly consistent and showed New Zealand had a long way to go in addressing this problem.
Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said ‘‘speed, not haste’’ was needed, to bring down the suicide rate. Although the figures were ‘‘too high’’ they were remaining relatively stable.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the Government needed to take a hard look at its suicide prevention strategy and see if it was having a measurable impact. Clearly it’s not. Meanwhile, the Green Party, which has been calling for a full inquiry into mental health services for some time, said the figure only proved its point.
It would be unfair to suggest any of the commentator weren’t sincere, but it rang of awkward platitudes – like an acquaintance left to comfort someone by patting them on the back, while saying ‘‘there, there’’.
Perhaps that’s symptomatic of our national approach.
The Greens offered something that was actionable and which could do a lot of good.
But while international evidence has shown one of the most effective ways is to support GPs in their clinics, very little focus appears to be directed in that direction.
Let alone working collaboratively with media to humanise, without glorifying, the victims of suicide.
Nothing will change while we’re talking numbers, forgetting that they were people.