Nick Smith’s suicide comments insensitive - again
26/08/10 12:27 Filed in: News Releases
“Last week the government cut counselling services for New Zealand families who have lost family members to suicide. Now to add insult to injury, they wheel out ACC Minister Nick Smith to make yet more ill-informed and insensitive comments about suicide victims, says MP for Wigram Jim Anderton.
Yesterday Nick Smith was quoted as saying that there is no difference between losing someone to suicide ‘to where a loved one is lost to heart disease or is lost to cancer.’
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There is a difference. A sudden death is always a tragedy. But at least a post-mortem will tell a family - ‘Your loved-one died of a heart attack.’ No post-mortem will ever tell the family of someone who has committed suicide why they did it.
“The families are left in a state of shock with very little information. They blame themselves. And research has shown that there is a very real danger of other members of a family committing suicide unless they get the help they need after the loss.”
As Associate Minister of Health in charge of the suicide prevention programme, in the last Labour-led government, Jim Anderton introduced new support services so that experienced clinical psychologists and Victim Support workers had the resources to help families after they have lost a loved one to suicide.
The National government announced last week that were cutting this service. The cost of the service nation-wide is about $3 million.
“Mental health has always been the Cinderella of the health system. Nick Smith is making things worse with his ignorant comments,” says Jim Anderton.
The number of recorded suicide deaths has been on a downward trend since these programmes were introduced.
Whilst the number of recorded suicide deaths remains high, there has been a significant downward trend in recent years, partly due to these programmes to help families after a suicide.
From a high of 516 deaths in 1999, this had fallen to 483 deaths in 2007. Among young people, those aged 15 to 24 years, the trend was more marked dropping from 120 deaths in 1999 to 94 in 2007 – a drop of 46.6%.
Yesterday Nick Smith was quoted as saying that there is no difference between losing someone to suicide ‘to where a loved one is lost to heart disease or is lost to cancer.’
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There is a difference. A sudden death is always a tragedy. But at least a post-mortem will tell a family - ‘Your loved-one died of a heart attack.’ No post-mortem will ever tell the family of someone who has committed suicide why they did it.
“The families are left in a state of shock with very little information. They blame themselves. And research has shown that there is a very real danger of other members of a family committing suicide unless they get the help they need after the loss.”
As Associate Minister of Health in charge of the suicide prevention programme, in the last Labour-led government, Jim Anderton introduced new support services so that experienced clinical psychologists and Victim Support workers had the resources to help families after they have lost a loved one to suicide.
The National government announced last week that were cutting this service. The cost of the service nation-wide is about $3 million.
“Mental health has always been the Cinderella of the health system. Nick Smith is making things worse with his ignorant comments,” says Jim Anderton.
The number of recorded suicide deaths has been on a downward trend since these programmes were introduced.
Whilst the number of recorded suicide deaths remains high, there has been a significant downward trend in recent years, partly due to these programmes to help families after a suicide.
From a high of 516 deaths in 1999, this had fallen to 483 deaths in 2007. Among young people, those aged 15 to 24 years, the trend was more marked dropping from 120 deaths in 1999 to 94 in 2007 – a drop of 46.6%.