When the Netflix series ‘13 Reasons Why’, which features teen suicide, first aired in 2017, mental health professionals expressed concerns that the show could have a contagion effect, triggering an increase in suicides among teens inspired by the show. A new study suggests these fears were not unfounded. According to a study published in the Read more
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
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