The Ministry of Health has launched consultation on its new five-year suicide prevention plan. It comes just months after shutting down the Suicide Prevention Office, which was the first action set out to be achieved in the 2019-2024 plan.

That current action plan under Every Life Matters - He Tapu te Oranga o ia Tangata, Suicide Prevention Strategy 2019-2029 is coming to an end this year. Read more

It's also a fact that our suicide prevention strategies in New Zealand overlook these truths.

A new study by Dr Rose Crossin at the University of Otago, Christchurch, examined data from the longitudinal study of 1265 children born in 1977.

It backed up international research showing people who abuse alcohol are 50 per cent more likely to think about suicide.

Excessive drinking and suicide were "fundamentally interlinked," Crossin said.

"Policies which reduce harmful drinking are suicide prevention policies."

In her study, before controlling for other suicide risk factors - such as trauma, mental health issues and substance abuse - alcohol abuse almost tripled the risk of suicidal thoughts.

"The reason that alcohol use disorder impacts on suicide is quite complex," Crossin said. "One aspect is that alcohol is a depressant so, if you drink alcohol over a long time, it's associated with depression, which is associated with suicide."

Given all these facts, you'd think our national suicide prevention strategy would have focus on alcohol as a major concern.

It doesn't though.

It's a division exemplified by the two being given to completely different ministries to tackle. Alcohol regulatory and licensing are handled by the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Health is in charge of suicide prevention.

Crossin said the findings of the study shouldn't be taken lightly for New Zealand, a country with high rates of both dangerous drinking and suicide risk.

In 2020, 21 percent of adults met hazardous drinking criteria, while 607 New Zealanders took their own lives in the year to June 2021.

"Our suicide prevention strategy has some really good stuff, but this is a big part that's missing," she said. "We recommend including alcohol-related interventions in it."

Dr Nicki Jackson, executive director of Alcohol Healthwatch, strongly supports Crossin's view.

"When you're talking about one of the biggest contributors to suicide in our country, we need specific actions," she said. "It's like trying to reduce the road toll without reducing alcohol."

She notes there are already interventions which numerous government-commissioned enquiries have been calling for since 2009.

"The Law Commission's recommendations weren't taken up in 2010, followed by the Mental Health and Addiction Enquiry. If you got to their 40 recommendations around improving mental health and reducing addiction, it's the alcohol recommendations that weren't given priority. They stood out like a sore thumb."

The easy availability of alcohol with home deliveries, its affordability and strong marketing campaigns are issues that need addressing, Jackson said.

Her recommendations as to how to fix this problem echo those Crossin came to in her study.

These include:

Screening for alcoholism must a consistent part of mental health treatment, and vice versa.

Adopting the Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 campaign approach, where actions on price, availability and marketing are the focus.

Pushing the drinking age back up to 20.

Where to get help

1737, Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 to talk to a trained counsellor

Kidsline 0800 54 37 54 for people up to 18 years old. Open 24/7

Lifeline 0800 543 354

Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254

Samaritans 0800 726 666

Suicide Crisis Helpline 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

Youthline 0800 376 633, free text 234, email talk@youthline.co.nz, or find online chat and other support options here

Anxiety New Zealand 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)

If it is an emergency, click here to find the number for your local crisis assessment team

In a life-threatening situation, call 111

• Newsroom
• Stuff
• Image: Stuff

Bishop Juan Carlos Elizalde Espinal of Vitoria gave his reflection "taking a stand for life" during Solemn Vespers in honour of Our Lady of the Snows on Aug 4.

"There are many people, youths and adults, who decide to put an end to their existence. Don't do it. Life is worth living. In face of the darkness, Christ is the Light," Bishop Elizalde stressed.

The bishop called on "everyone, public institutions, companies, schools, families and the Church," to join together to provide the necessary help to the person contemplating suicide. That person "needs to know that God has a plan for him and there's a new beginning."

"I ask that we spare no effort to address this problem of the first order, taking a stand for life. From the first moment of conception to its natural end, alleviating pain, also taking care of the caregiver and always ensuring the dignity of all," he continued.

According to official data, "on average, more than 10 people die from suicide every day in Spain. The Spanish suicide rate is more than twice the traffic accident rate. Suicide is one of the biggest public health problems in Europe. The estimated rate of suicide is 13.9 per 100,000 inhabitants per year."

Bishop Elizalde also pointed to one of the leading causes of suicide in Spain, bullying.

"Bullying is an evil that we must eradicate from schools and workplaces. We have no right to ruin anyone's life. Bullying in schools causes serious problems". This can even lead to "the young person ending his own life. There are many people, youths and adults, who decide to end their existence," he said.

The Bishop of Vitoria also recalled the millions of Christians who are persecuted because of their faith, "who bear witness to the Truth". He noted that in Spain, "there are also those who intend to eliminate the millenary presence of our faith."

"It's nothing new, but I want to alert you to the growing intolerance towards faith in Christ in our society," he said.

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

What a record to have!

If we are living in the real world, we are going to want to know why.

Much commentary on suicide rates and suicide prevention recites statistics and demographics, trying to identify the risk factors.

This is an essential part of what needs to happen; but only part.

It is commonly acknowledged that risk factors include loneliness, bullying, mental illness, trauma and deprivation. There is also risk from some illnesses which have an organic origin and these require a more specialised discussion than is possible here.

"People need to know their life is worth living no matter what is happening to them."

A consequence of the risk factors considered here can be the feeling that one's life is no longer worth living. Somehow, therefore, people need to know their life is worth living no matter what is happening to them.

Before looking more closely at this, it might be useful to identify some of the obstacles that get in the way of them being sure of this. I shall name four characteristics of our national culture that are not helpful:

Intellectual superficiality

I support the view there should be public discussion of this topic, which obviously, needs to be accurately informed and responsibly conducted.

But in a culture with diminishing regard for careful argument, preferring just head-line speak and blips of information such as are available through the social media, popular discussion often falls short of being a true ‘discussion'.

Moreover, in this cultural context, clear understanding and good judgment can be impeded by the way actual examples of pain and suffering, which we all find distressful, can distort careful argument.

Within a popular culture that is intellectually superficial, even the social sciences find it hard to compete with the pulling power of emotion.

Double standards and ambiguity in society's attitudes

It is not easy to convey the idea that one's life always matters regardless of what is happening, if at the same time society is proposing that sometimes life is no longer worth living. Whatever the case for or against euthanasia, ultimately, that is the message of legalised euthanasia.

"If youth suicides are to be discouraged, and assisted suicide made legal, the question has to be asked: what makes them different?"

How people are valued

If youth suicides are to be discouraged, and assisted suicide made legal, the question has to be asked: what makes them different?

Here we come face to face with what it means to live within a culture that values people not on the intrinsic dignity of being human but on their ability to function, that is, ‘their ability to be successful, productive, independent and in control'. (Kleinsman, Dr J Nathaniel Report, August 2017, p 3.)

The ability to function becomes the basis of differentiation between lives that are worth living and lives that are deemed not to be. Society needs to face up to what this way of categorising people implies, even apart from the question of suicide.

Loss of a sense of transcendence

We live in a culture that doesn't even look for reasons why life might still be worthwhile when it is no longer useful or has become a burden.

Are there reasons that transcend the criteria of functionality?

To see no further than what people can be useful for, or how well they can still manage, is a stunted way of looking at people and at human life. This brings us to the spiritual dimension of suicide prevention.

"To see no further than what people can be useful for, or how well they can still manage, is a stunted way of looking at people and at human life."
The Spiritual Dimension

It is not enough to analyse why a person might not want to live. We need to reflect on what usually makes people want to live.

The desire to live depends on, more than anything else, the experience of being loved.

This experience carries with it the experience of belonging, and a sense of self-worth, that normally come through the tangible experience of other people's love for us - starting with one's own parents.

The absence of this experience of being loved can be damaging, and devastating.

Fortunately, the experience of being really loved, even where it has previously been lacking, can still be a powerful source of healing.

One who ought to know, having given his own life over to helping the most troubled and most needy, namely Jean Vanier, has said ‘People who are deeply depressed are transformed when they know they are really loved.'

"The desire to live depends on, more than anything else, the experience of being loved."

The Catholic tradition dares to say God's love is made present to us in human love. The ‘spiritual' dimension of human well-being is deeply human!

Unfortunately, the human experience of being loved can fail so easily.

When the experience of being loved, especially by those who know us best, is lacking, we become unsure of ourselves, self-doubting and prone to anxiety. There is more than enough evidence of how marriage failure can affect children, and spouses.

The mystery of suicide is more complex yet, because some of its victims come from seemingly good family backgrounds.

As young people begin to move out on their own - the normal development of autonomy - the bonds that helped them to know their self-worth become looser. But they still have a deep human need to know they are truly loveable.

It comes down to this: whether we come out of strong family life or weak family life, our sense of self-worth and the value of our life, need to have roots in a love that cannot fail us.

It is not being suggested here that ‘religion is the answer'.

On the contrary, there are distortions of ‘religion' that can do the damage. But, ultimately, the love God has for us is of the kind that cannot fail us.

Unlike every other love, God's love for us, revealed in the Person of Christ and the events of his life, is unconditional and everlasting.

God's mercy pursues us even when we have let ourselves - and perhaps everybody else - down.

Christian revelation is above all the revelation of how much we mean to God - and that can mean more to us than anyone or anything that would make us think less of ourselves.

It is this game-changing love that is denied to people by widespread failure to give them a formation in life-giving, joyous faith.

This lack deprives them of the greatest reason for believing in themselves and believing their lives really matter.

They need to know this, especially in times of difficulty.

Without this deep sense of reassurance, some will look for other ways of escaping the pain of a life that seems cruel and unfair, when opportunities constantly elude them, and then self-blame makes it worse.

Short of suicide there are drugs and other ways of trying to forget.

At a deeper level, what they are trying to escape is meaninglessness. What they need is meaning - over-arching, all-encompassing, unassailable meaning!

Like all false prophets, the deniers have much to answer for.

It is an illusion on their part to think secular ideology is the touchstone of truth.

Most of humankind applauds the work of Mother Teresa and the very many others like her, from all religions, whose work is pointless if people are to be valued only in terms of their usefulness, or ability to manage for themselves.

Those who do see the point, know that human beings have a value that reaches beyond the short horizons of our life-spans, which is what makes them so special even during this life.

A spirituality that is ‘deeply human' is not somewhere ‘up in the sky'.

It is earthed in all that makes up human life.

Its raw material includes the planet we are made from, as well as the events of our daily lives.

What we do, socially, culturally, artistically, economically - no matter how small or seemingly insignificant - has a value that goes beyond our short life-times. ‘

All the good fruits of human nature, and of human enterprise, cleansed and transfigured, we shall find again.' (Second Vatican Council, Church in Modern World, n. 39). Again, we cannot fully taste and savour our lives without a sense of transcendence.

But what about situations that can only be described as bad?

People rightly try to escape poverty, oppression and hardship in all its forms.

Bad is bad, and an authentic spirituality never tries to bless what is bad or unjust.

On the contrary, it works for justice, peace and human development. So, in what sense can we still claim that every life is worth living, even when things are going very wrong?

Again, just as a sense of transcendence is the only way to see past the limited and limiting criteria of functionality, so here too, a sense of transcendence is the only way to see beyond the ills that oppress all people in one way or another.

Hope is not a mere assurance that things will turn outright. Rather, it is deep down knowing that ultimately all will be well even when things don't turn out right!

But this is a God-given awareness; it presupposes a person's openness to God, an intimate familiarity with God and God's ways. And this is what young people are deprived of in an environment of religious indifference and disregard.

Does this have something to do with our high rate of youth suicide?

If people are to know their lives are still worth living even when the odds seem hopelessly against them, they will need to have reasons that don't collapse when everything else does; transcendent reasons; God-given reasons.

"Hope … is deep down knowing that ultimately all will be well even when things don't turn out right! This God-given awareness…is what young people are deprived of in an environment of religious indifference and disregard."

• Bishop Peter Cullinane, Bishop Emeritus, Diocese of Palmerston North
• First published in Wel-com; republished with permission.

The office was opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Adern and Health Minister Dr David Clark and is part of the government's response to its inquiry into mental health and addiction.

"Last year 685 New Zealanders are believed to have taken their lives through suicide. Each of those deaths was a tragedy and we must do more to support people in distress, or struggling with addiction," Adern said in opening the office.

The Suicide Prevention Office will be headed by Carla na Nagara the former Manawatu coroner whom Stuff reports "has unravelled the mysteries of hundreds of suspected suicides will now act to prevent them."

Na Nagara said preventing suicide is not about the opening of a bricks-and-mortar structure, but about a "shared commitment to lowering our suicide rate".

"I do believe that we can turn things around and that we can bring our suicide rate down but I also believe that this will only be achieved if the nature of the problem we face is well understood and if collective responsibility is understood", na Nagara said.

Dr Maria Baker CEO of 'Te Rau Ora' has doubts about 'the office' approach to suicide prevention.

"Contextualising suicide as a mental illness will not work ... as there are limitations in dominant medicalised western approaches to suicide prevention and to Maori," Baker said earlier in the year.

"The other issue too, of course, is going to be with mental health services - the dominant response, is psychiatric medication ... there have to be other approaches that are healing, that don't just take into account the individual's distress, but also take into account the whanau and the context in which they're coming from."

To see a decrease in suicide among Maori and Pasifika, Baker favours a more community-based holistic approach one which gives people hope in a future, where they are valued, connected and can contribute.

On August 26, the Chief Coroner released the annual suicide statistics, showing a significant rise in the number of Maori and Pacifican dying by suicide.

The Suicide Prevention Office will initially be established as a team within the Ministry of Health's Mental Health and Addiction Directorate.

Health Minister David Clark believed the office would "galvanise" work towards reducing suicide.

"I believe together we can - and will - fix this long-term challenge and make New Zealand the best place in the world to grow up and live. A country where people know there is always someone to reach out to and get help.

"We want every New Zealander to know that when times get tough, if they are in distress or they reach a crisis point, there is someone they can turn to for help", Clark said.

Sources

• RNZ
• Stuff
• Stuff
• TeAoMaori.news

There was "clear evidence" that behaviour programmes focused on primary school children, contributed to reducing "later adolescent suicidality as wall as other unwanted behaviours".

This recommendation is contained Sir Peter Gluckman' report on youth suicide released on Wednesday.

Gluckman is the prime minister's chief science adviser.

The evidence-based discussion paper analyses the multiple factors involved in youth suicide and includes potential approaches to reduce New Zealand's rates.

The report says youth suicide is "more than simply a mental health issue and that, with what we know at present, the focus must also include an emphasis on primary prevention starting from very early in life".

"It also means raising mental health awareness and "ensuring that there are competent and adequate adult and peer support systems in secondary schools," Gluckman said.

The real problem with youth suicide was, "you can't predict it at the individual level".

"There are an awful lot of arguments and an awful lot of failed approaches in youth suicide," he said.

"That's why we're emphasising we need to be very careful with any intervention we do."

New Zealand's youth suicide rates are among the highest in the developed world.

The report has been prepared by Sir Peter Gluckman in conjunction with the Departmental Science Advisors from the Ministries of Health Education Justice and Social Development

It has had input from officials in the Ministry of Health.

If you need to talk to someone, the following free helplines operate 24/7:

• Depression helpline: 0800 111 757
• Lifeline: 0800 543 354
• Need to Talk? Call or text 1737
• Samaritans: 0800 726 666
• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234

There are lots of places to get support. For others, click here.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Stuff
• The Office of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor
• Image: TWAS

On Saturday Samoa joined the rest of the world to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day, in an effort to stop people ending their own lives.

Ah Chong said, " suicide is something everyone has a role to play in eliminating and today is a very important day for the organisation."

The day began at 6am with a parade on Beach Rd.

At 9am there was a television special consisting of personal testimonies, addresses by prominent church and government leaders, individuals, including Archbishop Alepati, video clips on suicide issues, awareness and fundraising events.

At 6pm there was a candlelight prayer service on the beach in front of Sheraton Aggie Grey's Hotel.

Orange and yellow balloons were released into the sky, signifying the spirit of those who took their own lives being released and set free.

F.L.O.asked everyone in Samoa to end the day by saying a prayer and lighting a candle at 8pm to show support for suicide prevention, to remember loved ones lost and for survivors of suicide.

"We will be lighting our candles on the beach and they will be placed on the water to float as beacons of light, signifying the light of Christ within each of us, a light that we are asked to illumine the whole world with and not to hide under a bushel or snuff out by suicide."

Look at photos

Founded in 2000, F.L.O. advocates for a suicide free Samoa by raising awareness about suicide prevention.

Source

• sobserver.ws
• Image: facebook.com

For counselling and support

• Need to talk? Free call or text 1737 any time
• Lifeline - 0800 543 354
• Samaritans - 0800 726 666
• Chinese Lifeline - 0800 888 880
  (for people who speak Mandarin or Cantonese)
• Youthline - 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz
  (for young people, and their parents, whanau and friends)
• What's Up - 0800 942 8787
  (for 5-18 year olds; 1 pm to 11 pm)
• The Lowdown - visit the website, email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626 (emails and text messages will be responded to between 12 noon and 12 midnight)
• SPARX - an online self-help tool that teaches young people the key skills needed to help combat depression and anxiety.