Resilience programmes should be introduced into primary schools for children as young as six and seven, as part of plans to reduce New Zealand’s high youth suicide rates. 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 Read more
Ministers have disputed New Zealand’s shameful ranking near the bottom of a recently released child welfare report. The Unicef – Innocenti study ranked New Zealand 34th out of 41 OECD countries. A core reason for this was our adolescent suicide rates, the highest in the world, and high rates of teen pregnancy, baby mortality and Read more
In the past few years a handful of children have deliberately taken their own lives, including one under 9. Kirsty Johnston reports on the unthinkable truth of pre-teen suicide. Krystal was 12 when she killed herself. The Auckland foster child had just had a violent argument with her 7-year-old sister over pocket money and both Read more