Suspected suicide numbers are still high. Can a new action plan turn it around?
The number of suspected suicides rose from 566 in the year to June 2023 up to 617.
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, October 31.
In today’s edition: Could Nazi symbolism be banned in New Zealand, why Joe Biden has been pulled into the debate over the word “garbage”, and Auckland’s speedway is moving to Waikaraka Park. But first, as the government moves to draft an updated suicide prevention plan, new statistics reveal why it’s so important.
A warning: Today’s edition of The Bulletin deals with suicide and issues of mental health.
Little change in suspected suicide statistics
Tomorrow evening, consultation closes on the second draft Suicide Prevention Action plan for 2025-2029. As described by the Ministry of Health, the action plan will assist with a “national approach” to suicide prevention which has been under way since 2019 when the first five-year plan was launched. Researchers, in a briefing published by the Public Health Communication Centre earlier this month, called the consultation period a chance to craft a suicide prevention plan that is “transformative rather than additive and acknowledges that the solutions required to prevent suicide are broad and far-reaching”.
It’s timely given that the latest annual data on suspected suicides was released yesterday. The Post reported that the number of suspected suicides in the year to June 2024 rose from 566 the year previous to 617, nearly twice the road toll over the same period. While the figures are indeed up, the chief coroner, in a statement reported here by RNZ, noted that the overall statistical rate of suicide had not changed as “fluctuations in rates from year to year are common in suicide data”. While the suspected rate of self-inflicted deaths was 3.6% lower than the average rate over the last 15 financial years, this was “not a statistically significant difference”.
The broader focus
The latest figures may just be provisional, but they do little to suggest things are improving. As reported by the Herald’s Katie Oliver, they confirm that Māori continue to be disproportionately impacted by suicide. The provisional rate of suspected suicide for Māori is 16.3 per 100,000 people for year to June, while it is 11.2 per 100,000 overall.
In a statement shared here by NZ Doctor, the Mental Health Foundation’s Shaun Robinson urged for further investment in suicide prevention and said that the country’s standard of wellbeing needed to improve. “We also need strong national leadership and buy-in from across the political spectrum to make it happen,” he said. Mental health minister Matt Doocey told me, prior to last year’s election, that he intended to secure cross-party support for mental health initiatives. Since taking office, the Suicide Prevention Office established under Labour has been gutted and RNZ’s Samantha Mythen reported that government agencies were “limited” in what resources they could devote to the new Suicide Prevention Plan. Meanwhile, as we’ve previously discussed, the auditor general has expressed concerns with the government’s decision to inject $24m into Mike King’s Gumboot Friday charity.
‘The bleak reality’
Writing for The Spinoff this morning, Marton Counselling Centre manager Anna Sophia described the “bleak reality” of working in rural mental health when you don’t have a sudden influx of government funding. I highly recommend you set aside some time to read the piece in full. While the decision to fund Gumboot Friday and the charity itself come from a good place, Sophia’s report illustrates why it could see vulnerable people pushed to the wayside. The Counselling Centre has had its annual funding to provide counselling to children and young people slashed by recent Oranga Tamariki funding cuts, wrote Sophia, and it isn’t easy to continue securing funding for the centre.
The role of counselling in contemporary Aotearoa, its effectiveness in practice, how it should be funded and who should be paying for it requires an in-depth consultation, that includes grassroots community networks like the Counselling Centre and not just a knee jerk reaction to paper over societal mental health unease with a $24m backroom handover to a self-created celebrity with very little experience in the field.
Redress for Lake Alice survivors
Sophia’s centre is within the Rangitīkei district. She described how the notorious Lake Alice Hospital casts a shadow over the region. “For decades it played a dominant role in the region. For better or worse, conversations about mental health have always flowed easily in this part of the country,” she said.
It was confirmed yesterday, reported RNZ’s Giles Dexter, that the government was fulfilling one recommendation of the Royal Commission’s final report into abuse in state care regarding Lake Alice. In 2001, a settlement was reached with 95 survivors for $6.5m but the law firm representing the group deducted an estimated $2.6m in legal fees from what the survivors received in payments. Now, survivors will be reimbursed for those legal fees. Erica Stanford, the minister in charge of the response to the inquiry, described it as fixing a "decades-long historical injustice". While the payments will be between $15,000 and $55,000, depending on the case, the redress will not take into account inflation over the two decades since the first settlements were reached. One survivor described that as “bullshit”.
The government will issue a full public apology to survivors on November 12. It’s expected that further details of redress for survivors will be made public around the same time.
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Gang patches banned, could Nazi symbolism be next?
The prime minister is open to a look at banning Nazi symbols after Mongrel Mob members were filmed using the “sieg heil” salute at a large tangi that travelled through Lower Hutt earlier this week, reported Stuff. It would put us in line with Australia which banned the salute and the sale or display of symbols at the start of the year.
But one of the government’s senior ministers, David Seymour, has suggested it’s not a necessary step – despite backing the move to outlaw gang patches. Seymour, reported Jenna Lynch for ThreeNews, said while he hated seeing Nazi symbolism in public, he quite liked “knowing who the idiots in society are”.
But that same view did not apply to gang patches, which Seymour said were more intimidating to people. When asked if he would be intimidated by a person holding a swastika he said: “If I saw one of those in New Zealand I would think what an idiot.” There could also be issues with the Bill of Rights should the symbolism be banned, said Seymour, despite legislating over those concerns with its gang patch laws.
Biden and the importance of an apostrophe
The word “garbage” is continuing to make waves in the dying days of the US presidential election, with Joe Biden wading into the debate. Asked to comment on a “joke” made by a “comedian” at a recent Donald Trump rally, which described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage”, the outgoing president appeared to label those supporting the Republican nominee as garbage instead.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his [Trump’s] supporters. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” said Biden.
The gaffe was quickly picked up by Republicans (Trump was told about it in real time at a rally), and as CNN’s Stephen Collinson analysed, it could ultimately help Trump. But the White House has claimed that Biden’s remark was not about supporters as a collective, but just the single supporter that made the initial comment about Puerto Rico. As the Washington Post examined, it depends on whether you place an apostrophe in the word “supporters” – did Biden mean all Trump supporters, some Trump supporters, or just one Trump supporter? The publication presented three examples, with bolding added for emphasis.
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His — his — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable...”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters’ — his — his — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable...”
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his — his demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable...”
So you’ve decided to buy an eBike. What now?
Whether you’re considering your first eBike or planning an upgrade, getting the right bike for you requires looking beyond just looks and price. Writer Tommy de Silva talks to an expert about the things to be aware of when eBike shopping, how Bosch is setting the standard for eBike components, and why it’s worth investing in quality. Find out what Tommy learned here. (sponsored)
Click and Collect
Police are calling for the public to be extra vigilant for Halloween tonight with methamphetamine disguised as lollies believed to still be in the community.
Auckland Transport data shows the agency reported an average of more than 93 incidents a week — more than 13 a day — in the year to August.
After 95 years at Western Springs, speedway is moving to Waikaraka Park in Onehunga.
Jamie Arbuckle, who was criticised for retaining his council seat while also serving as an MP, was one of 12 at the Marlborough Council table with an attendance rate of 90% or higher.
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown is on a mission to establish a direct flight from Auckland to Sao Paulo.
The Spinoff’s Alex Casey joins Duncan Greive on a new episode of The Fold to talk through the Top 100 NZ TV Shows project, what it says about us as a country, and why this is a particularly poignant moment to do this.
TONIGHT: Join us for a one-night only live event
We’re huge fans of local television here at The Spinoff, and for one night only we want to celebrate some of our all-time faves. Join Alex Casey, Kura Forrester, Rhiannon McCall, Stewart Sowman-Lund and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith at Q Theatre tonight as we unearth some beloved TV gems and argue for their place in our history.
Arthur, Ike, Geoff, Pete, AJ and Tom: Gabi Lardies presents a short history of New Zealand's emporiums. New Zealand writers pick their favourite books for the spooky season. Anna Rawhiti-Connell explains why the sex scene of the year is from the Disney-produced, very British Rivals. Lyric Waiwiri-Smith reviews the Thom Yorke show, which was so good she went two nights in a row. Preyanka Gothanayagi rides the ups and downs of being a cyclist in Wellington. The impact of long Covid will be huge; so, asks Rohan Botica, why are we doing nothing about it?
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. See you back here tomorrow morning.
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My take from reading this article is that the work started by the previous government was starting to have a positive impact on these statistics. The article however, seeks to minimise this. However cuts in funding, which the article mentions, may already be having an impact, particularly given the hardship being caused by other government policies. The article fails to highlight this. The article also doesn’t mention that funding in this area was already poor before this current government came to power. I would suggest that these stats are likely to explode and it would have been responsible journalism to point out this possibility. It is seriously on the cards. Postscript: I worked in this area for 20 years
Ultimately, an appropriate level of funding and a coordinated approach to both tackling mental illness and supporting the mental health of all New Zealanders has been absent during the reign of successive governments. It has long been in the "too hard" basket, with a splintered, disparate, and underfunded system failing people across Aotearoa for decades. This failure is thrown into sharp relief under this current government simply because of its policy and funding decisions.