My blogs on Mental Health - 2011 - 2018

Below are all the URL's to my blogs on mental health issues. I do hope they are useful. I would appreciate acknowledgement for any further use. Ka kite ano.  Thane Zander 2018.

Click here for Dr Starr/Ward21 blog.

Click Here for Mental Health - Family Affair

Click Here for Early Childcare Burning Killing our Kids

Click Here for Dad's Just Sad

Click Here for MidCentral Health claims

Click Here for  State of NZ Mental Health Institutions

Click Here for MidCentral Health ED department - Lack of Psych care.

Click here for The Tale of Three - Suicide

Click Here for Commission of Inquiry into MH services.

Click Here for Suicide is a Car Crash

Click Here for Tackling Suicide

Click Here for Social Sciences Education

Suicide article I wrote in 2008

Below is my thoughts on Suicide written before I became an advocate for Change.

The Tale of Three

By Thane Zander

It started in the Navy, three good mates ending it all through suicide. Two of them were pretty dark deep characters, the third the life of the party. All three were unexpected. The family of the two darkest ones closed up shop and never talked about it, but Mandy, the wife of the third did, only though after I ended up in Taharoto Mental Health Unit and talked to her, nearly a year to the day when I found myself close to ending it.

Mandy told me she couldn’t see it coming. Matt, her husband was a Maori from Te Puke and after his Dad died he was beholden to take up the mantle of Rangatira and to deal with the Iwi land deals, something she said he wasn’t ready for. Although she didn’t see his suicide coming, she did notice that he was getting moodier and silent, a sure sign something was up. But she couldn’t talk to him about it. But she did say that after he gassed himself that his whanau put undue pressure on her and she got the feeling it was his whanau that drove him to take his life.

But that was then. My own first encounter with suicide goes something like this. From 1997 when my wife was diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and until 2000, I was deteriorating mentally and physically. Looking back now I can see I had undiagnosed Bipolar Disorder and OCD issues. My family duties dwindled markedly as the drinking, the gambling and the whoring slowly but surely consumed me. I was at risk, and after one bout of gambling in Dunedin (where I hooked into the grocery money) and feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt, I found myself perched on a fifth floor balcony ready to jump. Somehow in the melee of my mind I managed to talk myself down, using the consequences of my actions to diffuse the situation. As soon as I had done so, I rang Gambling Hotline and sought help. I wasn’t to meet suicide for another four years.

The second time is a weird one. I hadn’t felt suicidal at all, and I was in the midst of a deep powerful mania, complete with voices. One of those voices persuaded me to end my life and join the next alien spaceship heading off planet, a Soul Cruiser. So I downed 20 sleeping tablets in one hit and went to bed to meet the next part of my journey. Before this attempt I had been awake for about five days, highly manic and in a dangerous frame of mind. Suffice to say, that attempt failed too, with me waking up 2 days after the attempt as if nothing had ever happened. I think my sister may have been aware that something was amiss when she looked after my house whilst I was recovering from my third attempt, some days after the second.

I found myself away from my Foxton home. My car was on the side of the road with dents in it, and the motor was kaput. I flagged down a local to go ring someone to come pick me up. At this stage I was probably hypomanic, flying at 30,000 feet and not making much sense of anything. But when she dropped me off at a farmhouse, I freaked out and ran back to the car. Some twenty minutes later a policeman drove up and asked me what was wrong. I told him I needed to see the CATT team as I wasn’t too well. He drove me towards Palmerston North and nearing the city limits I had a voice that told me “they’re going to take your brains” and the voice said it several times. I freaked and jumped out of the moving Police Car, barrel rolled on the road, leaped to my feet and jumped over the fence near me to run away.; 7.5 meters down I hit the road with both feet, smashing them both, my ankles and both bones in my lower right calf. I passed out and woke in hospital some days later with two casts on my legs and being treated for infections and a broken head. From what I understand the Police treated this as a suicide attempt, and now I have an understanding how easy it is for voice hearers to take the actions they do.

I lost a former flatmate and friend to suicide early this year. He was a voice hearer and in the 8 months he’d been living with us, he attempted suicide four times, by hanging in the carport (public), by overdosing on his meds, and by cutting his wrist. A lot of people said he was just attention seeking and most times his cries were ignored. When he stepped in front of the train, those who made those statements were very quiet.

These are my thoughts on suicide. As one that has been through many facets of suicide I strongly believe we need to open the floodgates and let the education waters flow through society. Forewarned is forearmed. If people know others stories and can learn from them, then there is a chance we might just start lowering the rate. If education and advertising attributed to the lowering of the road toll and made people aware of the consequences, then the same should apply to Suicide.

The 101 Kit for avoiding Suicide.

Let us say one's life is a bottle.  From the day they are born, through love caring and their environment, their bottle is strengthened.  Normally the bottle fills with good things, happy things and the contents fizz, but due to conditioning the bottle doesn't overflow.  Through our life we drink from our bottle of those good things and memories.  The taste and feeling is both rejoiceful and exhilarating.

But what happens when you are born with a bottle that is more fragile?  What happens if there is no loving, no caring and an environment that one finds confining.  Suddenly our bottle starts to fill alright, but the contents are the sad things, the hurtful things, poison to remember and poison to taste.  And as we grow those things get muddy and thick and no amount of effort yields the fizz to provide  a great taste and a lasting memory of good times.  And the older we get the more that weak bottle fills.

Invariably one day the contents start to spill out of the bottle and no matter how hard you try you

cannot stop that flow.  You try to put a cap on that bottle, but that leads to more pain, more misery and eventually two things happen.  The first, the cap is forced off and the mess is seen by stronger bottles.  They try to clean the mess up and put the cap back on (often repeatedly) to maintain good order, but nothing of their good intentions seems to work.  So you take your bottle to a dark corner you were already in and try to stop all that pain.  No one sees you.  No one cares.  No one loves.  You are safe with your poison as it's yours and yours alone.  The problem with all the shit in your bottle, it's chemically engineered to expand with time, and you have put the cap on yourself so tight it just can't and won't get out.

As you were a weak bottle to start with, the second thing happens.  Your bottle shatters into a zillion pieces and the contents mess up everyone else's lives.  For a minute.  If you had no friends, there is no one to grieve for you.  If your family didn't help to strengthen your bottle and give you good contents, will they care?  Invariably all that happens is the glass is cleaned up and thrown away, the contents wiped up and thrown away.  And your name appears in records.

The key to this story is growing strong bottles and providing the contents that folks can imbibe from.  The other key is to also address the overflow issues.  Poison can be cleaned out and replaced.  The system dictates currently that weak bottles should always be capped.  It doesn't look at addressing the poison and trying to change those contents.  Often weak bottles will spillover on family and if a family was good, it too would stop capping and addressing the poison.  The key to this story is to make sure that all bottles get to be old age bottles with a rich life history.  Yes there will be poison on that journey, but if there is enough fizz along the way the poison is overwhelmed.

Suicide is not an option.  It is an environmental conditioning.

The Girl Who Cannot Cry

Every now and then you come across people that are truly suffering and as is the way of us humans, we reach and we try to help.  Every now and then we come across people that we try to help but can't.  Every now and then we come across people we try and get to help themselves.  What we do for each is a human condition.  We hate pain, in ourselves and in others.

Every now and then we reach into them and pull them along.  We give them of ourselves in the hope they improve and get better.  Whether it is time, care, support, or love? We have to, don't we.  So what happens when someone you have been helping doesn't improve, at least inwardly?  Yes it's frustrating, but I'd say we all hold onto their dream and try and get them on the road to recovery.  If we don't try we fail as humans.  And what does happen when we say enough is enough, and leave them to their own devices without fully understanding their condition, their wants, and their needs?  Yes, we fail, as they may very well do too, sometimes to disastrous effects.

In November 2012 I was alerted through a radio show that one such sufferer had rung in and claimed she was going to end it.  My natural reaction was to get hold of her on social media and offer my services to help her away from the path she so desired.  Almost daily at the beginning, I kept in contact, mentoring her to find ways to get herself back on an even keel.  There were tough days and there were good days.  Off and on over the previous 2 and a 1/2 years she has been presenting as suicidal and has gone to lengths to detail as to how she was going to end it.  Most times I could use distraction therapy to get her mind around other things and away from the thoughts.  Fair to say in that time there have only been three or four conversations where serious suicide attempts were spoken about.  I thought I had succeeded to some extent.

Until last week.  The girl in question came onto the social media site stating she was deeply depressed and very suicidal.  She sounded it too.  On Thursday I tried all the techniques that had worked in the past to no avail.  After a 3 hour conversation she had her sedative and went to bed.  The following night (Friday) followed the same pattern and in a slightly longer chat I managed to get to the core of her PTSD (she'd only shared some trauma before).  I now knew she had deep seated issues, so told her to ring Crisis in her area and get Respite.  She did and they had nothing for her.  I was fearful for her and the situation she says she found herself in meant that she would likely end it that night.  Nothing I used would sway her.  So I offered to pick her up and have her stay for a week at my place, for three reasons. 1.  To get her away from her triggering home environment. 2. To act as a suicide watch on her behalf.  3.  To have someone to talk with her and try and help her be less depressed and less suicidal.

The first two days were sheer hard work for me, not having been with suicidal people in person for over 5 years. The second night, after being triggered by things a visiting friend had said, she tried to cut her wrists, but I managed to get the knife before that happened.  Her mood didn't improve.  After taking her mood stabiliser (about 30 minutes) her mood dipped and she asked me to call the local Crisis Team.  They were busy at the time and we were told to go to ED and wait for Crisis Team there.  The rest is written in this blog .

After that visit, I tried to give the person the time of day.  I took her around the city, showed her sculptures and art, city life, possible housing options if she decided to move for better mental health care.  I gave her options and told her that they were there if she decided to act on those recommendations.  Her mood during the day was less depressive, but at night her mood dipped after taking one of her mood stabilisers.  She seemed more relaxed however than the Saturday and Sunday.  Her psychologist rung and gave her a hard time about missing DBT training and to tell her she had an appointment with the psychiatrist (no doubt arranged on receiving the report from the Crisis Team) back in her home town.  She became very anxious about this and told me that they (her psychologist and psychiatrist) don't listen to her and she has tried many times to have her medication changed  or better treatment for her PTSD issues.

For the rest of the week she was seemingly in a reasonably good space, with some anxiety, but little sign of depression as displayed on the previous weekend.  Today I took her back to her city and went into the meeting with her Mental Health Team as a support person.  Now I know mental health clients get sick and tired of being sick and tired, but the impression I got from that team was they were sick and tired  of being sick and tired of my friend and was stated by them she needs to help herself more with all the tools she's been given.  Cold, distant, callous, and down right disinterested.  The only thing I could put this down to is that they have dealt with my friend for a lot longer than I have and have formed rock solid opinions of her.  To put it in a nutshell, no sign of any caring offered.  I did manage to get the psychiatrist to take her back on board for her medication (as her GP and fill in doctor may have messed up her medication levels causing the depression) and for the psychologist to talk to her next week about getting counselling for her PTSD issues (which stem back to her childhood).

I dropped her off at her place after and said not to worry, you now have ideas, plans, maybe's and could be's.  It's up to you to chase them.  And I also I told her I was available for a chat as always. Ordinarily I don't take this much time with some I mentor.  And yes there are deep seated underlying issues with her that need addressing, if they haven't already been done so, but in the end, I am human, and she can't cry (never has, and can't grieve either) and she needs someone to believe in her and to help her out when she needs it. I don't want to see her suffer the way a former room mate of mine suffered and wasn't listened to.  People are still affected by his actions and the inactions of the system!!!!!

Thoughts on ED at Mid Central Health and Mental Health Crisis

This is my 3rd blog dealing with Palmerston North Hospital and Mental Health services.  The first was a long hard look at Mental Health Services at Ward 21 and Community Mental Health.  The second an expansion into Mental Health Services throughout the country.  This blog takes me back to Palmerston North Hospital and Mental Health services.

I had the unenviable task last Sunday of taking a very suicidal client to ED for referral to the Crisis Team, this action was explained to me by the 0800 number team.  Fine so off we went.  This lady had to have her car door locked, and watched every minute of the journey, despite reassurance from me.  Once at ED the receptionist saw her and immediately told me to sit her down (after I asked for Mental Health Crisis Team and told her my friend was suicidal).

So we sat down.  After an hour my friend was ready to bolt and throw herself under a car.  For the next four hours I held her hand tightly, both to reassure her and to make sure she didn't bolt for the door.  It didn't help whilst siting there to hear that someones friend had died in a car accident and couldn't be revived in ED.  Exacerbated the problem.  Eventually the Crisis Team returned from the Police Station (dealing with a client no doubt) and saw me and my friend immediately.  The meeting was long (2 and 1/2 hours) and very fruitful.  I have very high admiration for the team that presented that night.  As a result my friend (from the Wairarapa where her support services are far from supportive) has an emergency psychiatrist appointment this Friday down there, has had her not very helpful psychologist ring her yet is still in a state that she fails to see any future or hope, despite the actions of the Crisis team here.

But that avenue is now open for her and maybe wheels will spin and doors will open.  I hope so for her sake.  But this is not the crux of this blog.  Some time ago a review was conducted over the services at Mid Central Health Mental Health and how they were run.  This was red flagged by recent suicides on the ward and in the community.  I'm pretty sure one of the recommendations was to improve access to a mental health worker in ED stationed there full time.  As the Crisis 0800 team now seem to refer clients at risk to ED surely there should be someone there that can sit with at risk patients until the Crisis Team can make an appearance?  How many folks have presented at ED after a phone call, sat for four to six hours and gone home and done something untoward requiring either more urgent services or a coroners report?

How much would it cost the DHB to station a duty Mental Health worker (doesn't have to be a nurse, someone from an NGO would suffice) in ED or perhaps seconded to Ward 21 and available on call.  Remember, I know a lot about Mental Health issues and Suicide so I had no qualms about sitting with my friend.  How are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and friends placed trying to keep someone presenting as suicidal safe when they just can't cope seeing that person suffer so much?  The answer for me; no cost is high enough when it comes to peoples lives.  The purpose of ED is to keep people alive, all people. Suicidal people have as much right to access life saving services as a road accident victim.

Fix it Mid Central Health.  Put that service in place and you might stop me blogging about your "business"!

The State of Mental Health Wards in this Country

I am writing this following recent comments on my previous blog on Ward 21 Palmerston North Hospital  and the recently released article on Stuff (Manawatu Standard) on the sad loss of another young life in that same ward.

Now I (and many at the blog) have had plenty to say about Ward 21, but a past comment on Wellington Services and the latest comment from Tauranga suggest Mental Health services in this country are in a dire state.

Before I move on with this subject here is something I used to ask our clients in the health sector when presenting for Like Minds Like Mine.  Is Mental Health an Industry or a Service?  Industry is an automaton by and large and uncaring in it's approach.  A service actually identifies, formulates, and proceeds with an action plan to garner better results.  I'd like to think Mental health is a service, but too many robots from the days of The Bins still permeate as staff and the level of care (or lack thereof) is plainly evident.

And don't get me wrong, yes I do know and understand that working in Mental Health is a challenging and demanding occupation, but money needs to be thrown at the industry to better align it to a caring recuperative service.  And that is plainly evident if deaths are occurring at an alarming rate (one is too many).

So what to do?  Recently, (apparently) a review was undertaken at Ward 21.  I don't have the results of that review or the reason the review was formulated, but I feel now there should be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Mental Health Services in this country (nothing less if patients are dying in the service).  It's fair to say many wards or units are in disarray, under funded, poorly staffed and generally have such a bad reputation that clients that need to seek their services are too scared to present for referral.  The anecdotal evidence in the community fosters that assertion. And this surely has a detrimental cost on not only that individual but also family and the community at large in the event things do go wrong.

The Inquiry should be directed at three key areas:

1.  Are Ward staff suitably qualified and do they meet the Standard for Caring (yet to be written I suspect)  for their clients?

2.  Are clinical psychologists and psychiatrists qualified to look after patients and do they also meet a Standard of Care for their clients (both on the ward and in the community)

3.  Do the mental health wards physically meet the requirements of the clients?

It's time we stood up and demanded better services for those who are unfortunate enough to require such service.  A cancer patient is treated like royalty. Heart patients get the King treatment.  People on general wards are very well treated by and large.  Mental Health is sadly the distant (and oft forgotten) bastard baby.

One area that has been raised is the way Mid Central Health "manage" their Ward services.  For some time a Psychiatrist has been the Ward Manager.  Now psychiatrists are very much psychiatrists first and not necessarily good managers, so there could be justification in saying wards are mismanaged and in disarray due to lack of skills and knowledge to do such a job.  So why not institute a Ward Manager (someone trained to manage and get results) with Ward Psychiatrists and staff working alongside in recuperative care?  A start, works in business.

Anyway, your thoughts please (post them as a reply here).  We need to prevent deaths and turn around lives.

Below is a running commentary by links found in the comments section below to allow easier access for those wishing to read them.

1. Review slams DHB's mental health service (from Manawatu Standard)

2. Rise in district's suicides horrific (from Manawatu Standard)

3. Ambulance staff boost to accelerate response (from Manawatu Standard - fixing the bottom of the cliff whilst holding back on a fence at the top.)

4. External Review of Mental Health Services at Mid Central DHB

5. Mid Central DHB Tactical Response

6. Report on service losing beds (From Manawatu Standard)

7.  Radio New Zealand Radio article on Mental Health services and funding.

8.  Mid Central DHB hold public Meeting to apologise, families of victims not invited. (From Manawatu Standard.

9.  Parents lose Faith in DHB (from Manawatu Standard)

10.  An obituary piece to Erica Hume from Sunlive.co.nz

11. News regarding Hulme actions to change Ward 21 and all MH wards/services.

12. Suicide Strategies Needed by DHB's and MoH Dated 2 August 2016.

13. Another suicide in MH care - Wellington  Dated 3 August 2016

14.  From the Herald - Multiple Murders Waikato DHB  Dated 11 October 2016

No Honour In Death

This lady shall not be forgotten.  This lady shall leave a legacy.  This lady suffered, she suffers no more.  This lady deserved better.

This lady is Charlotte Dawson.  No not WAS Charlotte Dawson, as some social commentators will espouse, bit IS.  Everyone is aware she suffered at the hands of poisonous pens from some ":social commentators" and had some very public battles with the media.  But that's the bad stuff (and it affected her, battle with depression well publicised) what about the good stuff?  Well I never really had a deep following of her careers but all I ever did see of her was a happy, buoyant, prosperous and caring, loving astute individual.  She was not the sort of person I felt deserved the scrutiny she got.

Yes the image I chose wasn't one of her in her radiant best.  This image suggest serious undertones and a reflection of the agony she was going through.  It's a fair bet some recent comments she had made (Lorde,etc) were made under pressure of her illness but lets be fair, nothing that needed the character assassination she got from some media writers here.  In fact, one article from Paul Thomas in that granddaddy of New Zealand papers The New Zealand Herald , resorted to basic gutwrenching gutter journalism.

So what about that assassination of ones character.  I have written previously on bullying, mainly in schoolchildren that leads to teenage suicides.  Until recently I focused on stopping the bullying but really had no way of really stopping it, until now.  Currently all deaths in this country are treated as homicides until the police decide through their investigations which category the death is covered by and whether charges are laid.  Currently charges are laid for medical misadventure, manslaughter, murder, accidental death but not suicide.

It's fair to say this is sound reasoning, but is it?  How many suicides occur through bullying, character assassination, or peer pressure?  How many people are implicit in someone taking their own life?  My thoughts are that suicide be investigated as  homicide, and a serious investigation be conducted to find out who is culpable as a reason for that suicide.  It means that families, friends and close associates, possibly even workmates are interviewed and the root cause of the suicide is arrived at.  Then charges should be laid.

This should also act as a deterrent.  Those that always seek out the weak and exploit them emotionally and physically should not be left to get away with their actions.  There is intent in their actions.  If they drive a person to suicide, they should be held accountable in a court of law.  Manslaughter doesn't allow for this charge to stand under current format, but Murder does.  And to be fair, IF Paul Thomas was found to be directly responsible for Charlotte taking her life, he should face a murder charge.  Use this opportunity to test the waters, and also to galvanise society.

Maybe if folks knew they could face a Murder Charge for Bullying, then they'd think twice about being so venomous.

Charlotte.  I am sorry you couldn't face life, and I hope you are in a better place.  But let your passing be a torch light for others.  Stand tall, folks.

Editted to add this latest bit of wisdom from The Granny Herald.  Their desperation knows no bounds.

Added 27th February.  Not only are The NZ Herald dodging bullets they are continuing to push their "I'm Sorry we Fucked Up Barrow" by covering the two previous posts in this thread through bringing out another masterclass on reporting on suicide and attitudes.  I applaud them for trying to bring public awareness but regrettably the horse has bolted for them and there is just nothing they can say to put matters right, UNLESS they actually get experts in the field to report, not some journo with no nous on the subject.

Sure this article goes someway towards reporting on the subject, but realistically it's a Feel Good piece, not a nuts and bolts piece.  Verdict - Fail.

Dad's just Sad

Contrary to popular belief, males in their 30's to 50's ARE committing suicide.  And not solely "poor" fathers/husbands, many are successful in their own world.

So why and what to look for.  Well the common thread wheeled out when these males suicide is that they were suffering "Mid Life Crisis" and they will deal with their issues.  Why? Well the obvious sign is that they tend to succeed at work and are able to deal with issues that surround them there therefore they have the tools to ride out their crisis'. But this is not always the case.

I have known six males in this age group who outwardly showed no indication that they were suffering, be it depression, suicidal thoughts, or anything that would permit harm on loved ones.  One day they were there, the next, Gone!!  And no the demographics don't show any particular pattern (barring one).  They just did it. Two were pakeha males in their 40's, one was a Maori male in his 30's, and another was a pakeha male in his 30's.  All were in the Armed Services barring that One.

So why did they do it.  Well to be frank only three had reasons after the fact.  The Maori  mate had taken on Maori land claims for his iwi after hs father and rangitira died and the pressures of that on someone ill prepared to do it was too much.  He was always the life of the party, a steady and strong leader in his trade and an all-round good bloke.  But no one saw his depression, even his wife and children.  As Mike King would say, The Tale of the Mask.

Another, the 30's pakeha was heavily in debt to gambling, once again only borne out after the act.  And the other was a mental health client who repeatedly made "noises"  about suicide, but was largely brushed off as ok.  The train driver today still is haunted by the victim's action and the lack of adequate care for that client..

So who sees the changes and what is done.  Well for everyone it is different manifestations.  Largely the group I am identifying has close family, friends and workmates so you would think many would be showing outward signs of suicidal tendencies.  Well the answer to that is a resounding NO!!  What generally is displayed is Mid Life Crisis and that's what it is called.  Many go through this stage without committing suicide but equally many don't.  There generally is a loossening off of Family contact through depressing or OCD behaviour, and this can be seen in many afterthoughts of an act of passing.  "Gee Dad was quiet all that time" "Gee Dad never smiled or laughed anymore" "Gee my husband turned the sex tap off" and that too transpires to work where many withdraw from relationships too alienating old friends but for no apparent reason.

Yes you have heard it all before but never really put two and two together.  In a society that is evermore alienating relationships and bearing towards the Me generation I think it is important to turn back the clock and actually restart dialogue when we feel something is amiss.  Not only would this tactic save a life but it would save those self same relationships.  The family can seek family help from within, but what of workmates.  Especially if they are in roles that say Male Pride rules (like the Armed services).  We need to stop and consider our friends behaviours if out of the ordinary and probably destructive.  We need to keep the lines of communication open.  Sure the outward signs of someone in this group is hard to identify but the small things make the difference.  We see small changes but rarely act on them.  Dare we start?

Mid Life Crisis is and will be that if nothing is done.  Not just for the close family, but for the community as a whole.  See the Signs, Reach out, Act accordingly and save a life.  Intervention is a positive key to survival. And remember dialogue does save lives.  Don't be afraid to intervene if you truly care.

Suicide is a Car Crash

Why that title?  Well suicide is a car crash.  It's messy, it has victims, it has enduring repercussions and it's preventable.

Let's be honest. We have spent as a country over the past 20 years hundreds of thousands of dollars (maybe in the Millions) on Road Safety campaigns to get the death and injury toll down and it has worked.  The death rate now is under half that of  15 years ago yet there are more people on the road.  So the question needing begging to be asked is why not apply the same funding and logic to the increasing suicide rate?  Funding preventative measures and education are paramount in the nations desire to not only get the suicide rate down, but to try and prevent it from happening in the first place.  It's fair to say that too many young people especially have to deal with suicide, be it themselves, a family member or a peer.  And youth are the most at risk group for this insidious aberration that is the choice to die.

So where to start?  It's about building a better society.  The Road toll campaigns set out to improve quality of life for most New Zealanders.  The Like Minds Like Mine campaign set out to make people more aware that suffering a mental illness is not a millstone around societies neck.  So why not Suicide Prevention?  What is holding back the decision makers?  Surely Head Coroner MacLeans comment on the matter a few years back should have opened the doors to not only better systems for reporting, but given the impetus for society and government to tackle this problem head on, albeit gently to start with?

The current ads for drunk driving decisions (You know I can't eat your ghost chips - Spoon) set at youth level must be having an impact so why can't equally intuitive target advertising be set in place for youth now so suicide prevention is the key and suicide is not the result?  I'd wager the work Mike King and The Key to Life Charitable Trust are tackling is making inroads, but that campaign needs to be extended across the country with passionate caring people involved, not bookworms and bureaucrats.

The decision is ours Kiwis.  Do we stand up and educate, change, and impress, or do we live with the burgeoning status quo?  To support this missive, retweet, if you want to help (volunteer, donate) go to Facebook and look up The Key To Life Charitable Trust and have your say.  Stand up and be counted, lower suicide rates, heck even campaign to set in place zero tolerance.  Too many lives are lost and many more are affected by this situation and that's not right.