Live Web Broadcasts to Focus on Suicide Prevention

The Mental Health Foundation is launching a new series of live and interactive online broadcasts in May aimed at answering the challenging question: “How Do We Talk About Suicide?”

The decision to launch the series is in response to public demand for greater access to information and what actions people can take in their families and communities to assist with suicide prevention.

The first broadcast will be at 10am on Wednesday 18 May. It will feature Professor Sunny Collings, a psychiatrist who has spent over two decades working with people at risk of suicide, and their families. Her published research during that time has included a focus on people with experience of mental illness, their carers and supporters.

Collings says that fear of saying or doing the wrong thing often prevents people from talking about suicide with their friends and loved ones, which can hinder help-seeking at crucial times of crisis.

“It may feel scary, but you need to be able to talk to your family about depression or suicidal feelings,” she says. “We hope this broadcast can provide some practical tools you can use in looking for warning signs in loved ones, how to respond when you think someone is at risk, and also how we can talk in a constructive way about suicide at the whole community level.” Mental Health Foundation Chief Executive Judi Clements says the broadcast is the first in a series designed to encourage discussion about mental health and help-seeking within families, whanau and communities.

“We’d like to see ongoing dialogue about how everyone in New Zealand can flourish, and enjoy positive mental health and wellbeing. Suicide can be the tragic end result of a long history of problems, and by shedding light on the signs of depression and other risk factors, we can all be equipped with knowledge that can help prevent more unnecessary deaths.”

Future broadcast subjects will include cultural perspectives on suicide prevention, coping with suicide bereavement, and advice for families on supporting a loved one with an ongoing mental health problems.

The broadcasts, known as webinars, are online seminars which allow presenters to interact with an audience live over the internet. Audience members can register for the event online at www.spinz.org.nz.

Once registered, audience members are sent a link to a website where they can log on and view the presentation at the time of broadcast – 10am on Wednesday May 18. Any questions that audience members have can be sent in confidence to the presenter during the broadcast by typing into a chat window provided on screen, and will form part of the interactive discussion.

Registration for this webinar is limited to 50 participants. For those unable to attend the live event, it will also be recorded for later free viewing.

ENDS

© Scoop Media