Survivor of suicide bid speaks out

New Zealand needs to provide much better care for the mentally ill, says a man who was rescued from a bid to take his own life. Liam Martin is speaking out in light of coroners’ latest provisional statistics on suicide. They show an increase in the 2015/16 year to the highest number of suicides yet, 579, up from 564 the preceding year.

But the per capita rate has stayed relatively unchanged, at 12.33 deaths per 100,000 people, slightly lower than a peak of 12.65 in 2010/11.

Martin, a 19-year-old Aucklander, was taken to hospital by a friend after a drug overdose when he was depressed earlier this year.

He became an Instagram star at 16 for his photos impersonating celebrities which attracted nearly 2 million followers. By 17 he was suffering depression and living out of his car, and the pressure of his online persona and the harassment it received was becoming too much.

He said that when he was in hospital several others were there who had harmed themselves. He waited 17 hours to be seen by a psychologist and faced another long wait for referral to a respite care centre, but once there he found it very helpful.

Martin’s problems have not gone, but he said: “I’m fighting.” In the depths of his depression, he did not know how or where to get help and he now devotes time to helping people find out. “It doesn’t have to be a [health] professional. It can be anyone that makes you happy and can help you overcome your situation.

“If you fall back into depression, don’t look at it as a failure. It is an illness; it takes time to overcome.

“We need to invest more money [in mental health services]. We should not have such a high suicide rate. One life saved is so much potential for the rest of New Zealand.”

In the coroners’ provisional statistics, the Canterbury health district had the most suicides, at 78, followed by Waikato, 55; Auckland, 50; Waitemata, 49; and Counties Manukau, 48.

By ethnicity, the highest rate of suicides was among Maori, at 21.57 per 100,000. The Asian rate, although less at 8.28 per 100,000, had risen from 3.4 per 100,000 the preceding year (39 suicides, up from 16).

Male suicides fell to 409, from 428 in 2014/15; the number by females rose to 170, from 136. There were eight suicides by children aged 10-14, and 31 by people aged 75 or older.