Dunne Excludes Families from Suicide Meeting

A group representing almost 500 families affected by suicide is angry that Minister of Suicide Prevention, Peter Dunne, has excluded them from a meeting to discuss changes to guidelines on media reporting of suicide.

In December last year, the Chief Coroner invited founding members of CASPER (Community Action on Suicide Prevention Education & Research) to make a submission on the need for more open reporting of suicide. After reading the submission, Chief Coroner Neil MacLean allowed uncensored reporting of the inquest into the death of Cloudy Williams, something unprecedented in New Zealand.

In his decision on that case he said he was persuaded that more benefit than harm arose from reporting of suicide. The decision followed comments he made in August 2010 that New Zealand has the most restrictive laws on suicide reporting in the world, and the highest rate of youth suicide and that a review was necessary.

Current Ministry of Health media reporting guidelines are 11 years old. The research on which they are based is outdated and in some cases misrepresented according to CASPER. “More recent evidence shows the link between suicide reporting and suicide deaths is extremely weak and that open discussion of suicide has protective effects” said CASPER spokesperson Maria Bradshaw.

CASPER wrote to Peter Dunne requesting an invitation to the meeting but was told they were not welcome as the meeting was solely for members of the media.

Reports yesterday however show that in addition to the media, bloggers, mental health clinicians, the Chief Science Adviser and the Chief Coroner were invited to the meeting, reports of which emphasised that those attending shared the same perspective on the issue.

“As people more directly affected by this issue than anyone else, we bring a different perspective. We have researched the evidence on media reporting of suicide extensively. We also have experience of being criminalized for sharing the stories of the suicides of our family members in a bid to educate the community and prevent future suicides” Said Ms Bradshaw who has recently travelled to the United States to gather information about the impact of open reporting on suicide in other countries.

Our families have suffered the ultimate tragedy as a result of the refusal of Peter Dunne and his colleagues to ensure suicide prevention in New Zealand is evidence based. We are angry that more families will share our suffering because of the Minister’s refusal to listen to the evidence that his policies promote, rather than reduce suicide,” Ms Bradshaw said. “I think most New Zealanders would be appalled at the way in which our Minister of Suicide Prevention ignores and belittles families bereaved by suicide.” His comments to us that we ‘may’ be invited to comment on the draft guidelines developed as a result of yesterday’s meeting are insulting and show his total lack of respect for the people he is supposed to represent.

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