Popular and sometimes controversial sports journalist, Doug Golightly has begun the new year with an appeal for New Zealanders to take seriously the country’s suicide epidemic. Urging his media colleagues to “red card” references to suicide, Golightly cited an incident from the Ashes Test, when Shane Warne commented that a run-out had been ‘suicidal’. “It’s sickening Read more
The suicide rate in New Zealand prisons is 11 times higher than in the general population – and, since 2008, more than 75 prisoners have died. The number of prisoners committing suicide has much to do with high rates of mental health problems combined with poor quality psychiatric care in prison. Doctors and nurses who Read more
Paris Jackson, the 15-year-old daughter of the late singer Michael Jackson, cut her wrists and swallowed a bottle of pills June 6. As she recovers, one in six high school students will seriously consider ending their lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death for Read more
Irish politicians have overwhelmingly approved an abortion bill described by Cardinal Sean Brady as a legislative and political Trojan horse “which heralds a much more liberal and aggressive abortion regime in Ireland”. The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill — the first legislation allowing abortion in the Republic of Ireland — passed its second stage Read more
What can be more painful to a parent than losing a child to suicide? The problem of cyberbullying was brought to national attention several years ago by the passing of 13-year-old Megan Meier, who committed suicide subsequent to cyberbullying by Lori Drew, the mother of another girl. Despite years of public campaigns and passage of 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
Almost 63 per cent of New Zealanders support proposed law changes that would allow ill people to end their lives, a new poll shows. Last week’s results came a day after after Auckland man Evans Mott, 61, was discharged without conviction for assisting his wife to commit suicide. Labour MP Maryan Street has drafted a Read more
More than 500 people committed suicide in New Zealand in 2010. The report, called Suicide Facts, showed the suicide rate was 23.6 per cent below the peak rate in 1998. A Ministry of Health report released today showed there were also 2825 intentional self-harm hospitalisations, which included attempted suicides. Hanging, strangulation and suffocation were the Read more
On Monday my friend Carl died – under the wheels of a train. He would not have meant to disrupt the lives of rush-hour commuters. Nor would he have wanted to cause distress to the train crew. Perhaps from the “other side” he will let me apologise on his behalf. Sorry. Perhaps it’s ironic that, Read more
In recent times two films, Another Earth and Melancholia, have given sensitive treatment to the subjects of depression and suicide. As well, Nothing Prepared Me For This, has been published. It is a book that brings together the writings of a number of relations and friends of people who have committed suicide. In a recent Read more