February 09, 2014
Funds for suicide prevention boosted
A $2 million fund for suicide prevention programmes is being launched today alongside a new Maori and Pacific Island suicide prevention programme.
The launch is part of a symposium on the issue being held in Wellington.
Organiser Keri Lawson-Te Aho says there has been a sustained effort to prevent suicide in whanau and communities, but suicide rates among Maori are still disproportionately high.
She says in the past suicide prevention has had a clinical focus.
"Many of our whanau don’t have access to clinical services, especially our young people, our rangatahi, and so it’s time to do something new, it’s time to whakamana our whanau, to lift them up, to lift up our hapu, our iwi, our communities, and to say it’s time for us to find our own solutions," Dr Lawson-Te Aho says.
An example is the action taken in Kawerau, which had 17 youth suicides in 2011 and just one last year.
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