It’s a fact that excessive drinking is linked to suicidal thoughts and behaviour. It’s a fact that it is associated with a bit less than a quarter of all deaths by suicide in New Zealand. It’s also a fact that our suicide prevention strategies in New Zealand overlook these truths. A new study by Dr Read more
“Sometimes when I share my Catholic faith with people, they mention to me that Catholics like to drink alcohol and how wrong that is. How do I respond to this?” Scripture gives strong testament to the fact that merely drinking alcohol is not a sin, but getting drunk on alcohol is. Continue reading
The Presbyterian Church has made a public statement condemning New Zealand’s binge-drinking culture and calling for effective government policies to combat it. Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, the Right Rev Andrew Norton, says the church isn’t against alcohol and the community must play a role in providing alcohol-free activities for young people. But he says Read more
Bayli Elliot, 18, died in the early hours of last Monday morning after drinking alcohol with about eight friends. The Timaru Herald understands she was comatose, but it is not known for how long before an ambulance was called. The situation was a reflection of the drinking culture in New Zealand, Youth Alley youth worker Read more
Depression is a major, if not the major, cause of suicide. Every year, almost one million people die from suicide around the world. Depression is often seen as a disorder of the developed world; mental disorders – in particular depression but also disorders from alcohol misuse – have been clearly linked to suicide in high-income Read more
One in 10 New Zealanders could now be considered “alcoholic” according to new diagnostic criteria – but the majority of those with a drinking problem are unlikely to recognise it because the issue is so common. The new estimate of 400,000 “alcoholics” in New Zealand – around 10 per cent of our 4.4 million population Read more
If drinkers don’t know when to call it a night, at what point should the rules force them to? For Wellington, tackling mainly young people’s drinking could mean no-one can buy a bottle of wine from a store after 9pm, Katie Chapman reports. Continue reading And According to Nick Cater, a visiting lecturer insights@nzinitiative.org.nz, The wowsers Read more
Every week or so, Father Ray toted a suitcase past the rectory offices. “Dry cleaning,” he’d say. “Liquor bottles,” feared both the pastor and Mary Catherine Meek, who worked in the suburban Chicago parish. People caught whiffs of alcohol on Father Ray (not his real name) at Mass. He had undergone treatment for alcoholism before Read more
After 4 young men were killed in a car accident last weekend, a South Auckland priest has urged South Auckland youth to take it easy on the roads for the sake of their families. Viane Gaga and his family would usually have been attending church last Sunday. But instead, they were at his bedside in Read more
New Zealanders commonly drink too much. The proportion who drank more than recommended limits on at least one occasion in the past year ranged from 40 per cent for those aged 55 to 64 to 80 per cent for those aged 18 to 24. While for some this may be infrequent, for too many New Read more