August 29, 2017
Close listening critical in suicide prevention
Learn how to listen to kids.
That's one of the lessons comedian Mike King will bring to a hui on suicide in Kaitaia tonight.
He says provisional figures showing 606 people, took their own lives in the 2016/2017 year shows current approaches aren't working.
Maori had the highest suicide rate of all ethnic groups at 21.73 per 100,00 people.
He says young peopel he has talked to who have contemplated suicide have said they don't feel valued buy tjhe signiofiocvant adults in their lives, and that means more than parents.
"Every time they talk to a significant adult in their life, the adult makes it all about them and makes them feel worse. The gap between our generation and the young generation is getting further apart and as a result the kids feel completely unvalued and they are asking themselves 'what's the point?'," he says.
Mike King speaks at a hui at kaitaia College at 6.30 tonight, along with Te Taitokerau MP Kelvin Davis.
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