National’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention spokesperson Matt Doocey is welcoming people to tune in to Parliament this Thursday as the Zero Suicide Aotearoa Report is launched.

The milestone is testament to effective cross-party collaboration, which Doocey said was vital to achieving outcomes for those affected by mental health issues.

Its importance is recognised with a Parliamentary debate ahead of the launch.

“In New Zealand we’ve got a younger generation who have the vocabulary to talk about mental health, they don’t face as much stigma as previous generations and they’re challenging politicians to talk about mental health more and address the growing demand for mental health services.”

The Cross-Party Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing Group was established in 2019 following a recommendation from the 2018 Government inquiry into mental health and addiction.

The group commissioned the Zero Suicide report last year to highlight the issue, and to stimulate debate around policy at a local, regional and national level.

Doocey said he felt privileged to have been part of the process since 2019 and hoped the launch of the report would be the next step towards healthier outcomes.

“A cross-party approach is important for addressing long-term mental health issues by taking a view to policy development longer than our three-year parliamentary cycles,” he said.

“I hope this research promotes debate in parliament on how all parties can take more of a bipartisan approach to suicide prevention.”

Every year, an estimated 150,000 people in New Zealand think about taking their own life. Approximately 50,000 of these will make a suicide plan, 20,000 will attempt to take their own life and more than 500 people will die by suicide.

While New Zealand has made some progress towards reducing suicide rates since the late 1990s, annual suicide rates for young people aged 15-19 years have increased significantly over the last three years, driven by a nearly 50% increase amongst young men.

“For those who’ve lost a loved one to suicide, it could feel as it an insurmountable wall has gone up that divides them from the rest of society, such is the difficulty many of us feel about speaking about suicide.”

The debate in Parliament will run from 3.25pm to 5pm on Thursday July 8, and will be followed by a launch reception.

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