Honest Answers

- Marc Wilson

About a year ago, the Government invited consultation on the draft suicide-prevention strategy, to replace the one that passed its best-before date in 2016. The preamble notes that this is important, because our youth rates are the highest in the OECD, and the burden falls heavily on Māori and Pasifika peoples.

If internationally renowned suicidologist Annette Beautrais were writing this, she would also point out that older people are at particular risk. Most people don’t realise this, because of the attention given to headlines relating to youth. And with good reason. If you look at the statistics by age, the rate per 100,000 head of population clearly shows a big spike between the ages of 15 and 24, with a steady decline until a (relatively) small uptick from age 69.