Suicide awareness month
Today I want to talk about suicide in Hawaii September is suicide awareness month that's from the 1st September to the 30th September, for New Zealand we have one day which is to remember and raise awareness about suicide it coincides with world suicide prevention day that is the 10th September.
Every year more than 720,000 people die from suicide around the world. It's the 3rd leading cause of death amongst 15-29yr olds.
For every suicide there are 4 times more people who have attempted suicide.
New Zealands youth suicide rate for adolescents aged 15-19 was reported to be the highest of 41 OCED/EU countries .
23% had significant depressive symptoms up from 13% in 2012.
62% of young people had attempted suicide with females being higher at 7.3% than males at 5%
19% said they had difficulty getting help for their emotional concerns.
53% reported they had significant depressive symptoms, half of this group had also reported they had self-harmed in the past year.
13% of this group reported they had attempted suicide in the past year.
During the period of 2015 -2019, 655 children aged 5-19 died from suicide.
In 2022/23 the age group with the highest rate of suicidal deaths in New Zealand was 20-24 which had a rate of 20.1 per 100,000 people.
In 2022/23 565 people commit suicide 411 were males and 154 were females. Around 12 people die every week from suicide in New Zealand that's 1-2 people a day.
The link between suicide and mental health disorders especially those with alcohol use disorders and depressive disorders, and a previous suicide attempt is well established. ,
However there are also the impulse suicides those that are due to a moment of crisis, a breakdown in the ability to deal with life stresses, such as financial problems, relationship problems, or chronic pain or illness. In addition to experiencing conflict, disaster, violence, abuse or loss can lead to a sense of isolation which is also strongly associated with suicidal behaviors.
Suicide is also high among vulnerable groups such as refugees, migrants, indigenous people, LGBTIQ, and those that are bullied constantly as well as prisoners.
Stigma particularly surrounding mental health disorders and suicide , mean that many people thinking of taking their own life or who have attempted suicide are not seeking the help and are therefore not getting the help they need.
The prevention of suicide has not been adequately addressed due to a lack of awareness of suicide as a major public health problem and the taboo in many societies to openly discuss it.
To date world wide only a few countries have included suicide prevention amongst their health priorities, and only 38 countries report having a national suicide prevention strategy.
In New Zealand we have a week for mental health which is the last week of September ( in Hawaii that's the whole month of May).
Mental health awareness and suicide walk hand in hand, suicidal people have some form of mental health disorder. Understanding one helps you to understand the other. If our country can't sort it's mental health out then there will be more and more suicides each year.
In Dunedin there is a place for the local citizens called Life Matters ( Hope Centre).
Life matters is a suicide prevention trust.
( website www.lifematters.org.nz)
If there was one of those places in each town and city across NZ we could reduce the number of suicides happening each year. Above is a list of places you can call should you feel you need to talk to someone never be afraid to ask for help or reach out your life is worth living.
