How can we as members of our community contribute to preventing suicide and to changing the narrative around how we think about and discuss suicide? This is the theme of the 11th World Suicide Prevention Day event to be held in Ōtepoti Dunedin on Tuesday 10 September.

“Our focus at the event will be to increase our knowledge and skills as a community and consider what changing the narrative around suicide means in a practical sense,” said Clare Curran, general manager at Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust.

‘‘The focus will very much be on how we change the narrative, from being afraid or tentative about talking about suicide to being confident and careful,’’ Clare Curran said. ‘‘It is important that people who are concerned about friends or loved ones are able to feel confident to carefully ask the question ‘are you having suicidal thoughts?’.’’

“Equally, it is important for people having suicidal thoughts to feel able to ask for help,” she said.

The statistics remain sobering. In the 2022/23 financial year, there were 565 suspected self-inflicted deaths in Aotearoa New Zealand. The figures for 2023/24 are not yet available.

This equates to around 11 people every week who die by suicide in Aotearoa New Zealand. Suicide has a “ripple effect” in the community, and there are more than 100 people in the community affected by each death with very little support in place.

Those bereaved by suicide are almost four times more likely to have made a previous suicide attempt themselves and one in 20 New Zealanders report a suicide attempt.

Since records began to be kept in 2008, there’s been a total of 8,150 suicides in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The World Suicide Prevention Day event will feature a panel discussion on the theme of ‘‘Change the Narrative - #Starttheconversation’’, as well as music and kapa haka performances.

The free event will begin with kapa haka from St Hilda’s Collegiate, music by duo One + One, and a mihi whakatau by Mathew Kiore, manager at the Maori Centre for Suicide Prevention. The MC will be health promotion expert Associate Professor Richard Egan, of the University of Otago Department of Preventive Medicine.

Speakers include Mr Kiore and Life Matters board member Simon Leach, who is also bereaved.

The panel involves people with a mix of experiences and views, including bereaved parent and author Linda Collins; Mirror Services chief executive Deb Fraser, Life Matters senior peer practitioners and trainer Jade Mitchell, and Professor Jesse Bering, of the University of Otago Department of Science Communication.

Life Matters Suicide Prevention Trust general manager Clare Curran said the panel discussion will look at how we can be better prepared as a community to have conversations about mental health’’.

‘‘We will explore different ways to begin these conversations and why it’s so important to have services that welcome people to talk about their mental distress and does not try to categorise and judge that distress.’’

Life Matters board chairman James Sutherland will wrap up the evening.

Ms Curran said the organisers of the event had put a lot of emphasis on ensuring the World Suicide Prevention Day even would be a safe space for people who attend, who are bereaved and/or have suicidal ideation.

There will be peer supporters from The Hope Centre — Te Whare Tūmanako on hand throughout the event to sit with people who need support.

In addition, speaker Mathew Kiore will be at a table making puāwai kahungi/flax flowers — a symbol of aroha and healing, and people are welcome to join him.

Event Details:

When: 6pm-8pm Tuesday 10 September

Where: Knox Church, Ōtepoti Dunedin

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