Government agencies have warned a lack of resources will limit what they can do to prevent suicide in the new suicide prevention plan. 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 Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Suicide’
Dame Joy Cowley – faith, wisdom and her messy spiritual journey
Monday, September 30th, 2024
Dame Joy Cowley must be one of New Zealand’s most well-known authors. She’s also a mother, suicide survivor, woman of faith, spiritual director and wise woman. Amongst other things. Now almost blinded by macular degeneration, 88-year old Cowley is about to launch a new book of rhymes and nonsense, where shadow and light play a Read more
Native American tribes sue social media giants over youth suicides
Monday, April 15th, 2024
In a bid to address the alarming rates of suicide among Native American youth, two tribal nations have taken legal action against major social media companies. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles county court, targets Meta Platforms (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), Snap Inc. (owner of Snapchat), ByteDance (parent company of TikTok), and Read more
Mental Health advocate Mike King is all for getting rid of Suicide Prevention Office
Monday, April 15th, 2024Mental health advocate Mike King is all for getting rid of the Suicide Prevention Office after an announcement that a number of staff would be cut as part of the Ministry of Health’s cost-cutting proposal. Speaking to TVNZ’s Sunday, King, known for his endeavours in the mental health area including the I Am Hope charity, Read more
Is our suicide conversation helping or harming?
Thursday, September 21st, 2023
I stood alone in a cemetery, staring at a teenager’s grave. The headstone was covered in baseball caps and necklaces – colourful tributes to a life cut short. I’d travelled to Kawerau, a former milling town on the East Coast, to report on a spate of youth suicides that had rocked the town. Back then, Read more
Poverty, hunger drive suicides in North Korea
Monday, June 12th, 2023North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has ordered local authorities to take suicide prevention measures after various media reports revealed families committed suicide due to hunger and poverty. Kim officially defined suicide as an “act of treason against socialism” and issued a confidential suicide prevention order during emergency meetings of the party leaders all over Read more
Mike King breaks down over child suicide rates
Thursday, November 3rd, 2022
A tearful Mike King broke down on the radio discussing New Zealand’s latest suicide rate. The system is broken and needs to be fixed urgently, he says. Although New Zealand’s suicide rate has dropped for the third year, Māori continue to be disproportionately affected, statistics show. The deputy-chief coroner released the figures to June 30, Read more
Suicide is not a sin to be judged
Thursday, September 15th, 2022
The first thing I remember being taught about suicide is that it is selfish. And so in my middling Protestant childhood, while I did not worry about the eternal destiny of people who killed themselves, I did believe suicide was principally a moral failing. In Catholicism, the situation was more complex. Suicide was thought to Read more
Diocese creates mental health ministry
Thursday, September 15th, 2022
Raging suicide statistics have led an American Catholic diocese to create a mental health ministry. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports over twice as many people died in 2020 by their own hand rather than someone else’s. Once considered a mortal sin, suicide is viewed much more moderately today. By bringing suicide Read more
Man and dog on charity ride adventure to support mental health
Monday, March 28th, 2022A man and his dog are about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime, making plenty of memories and hopefully raising plenty of money for mental health too. Gary Anderson, from Kaponga, will travel across the North Island by motorbike with his 11-year-old blue merle border collie Kairo in the sidecar seat of Read more