2011 News
December 
Auckland District Health Board Suicide Prevention Symposium
Best Practice Guidelines on Suicide Prevention, Crowne Plaza, 128 Albert Street, Auckland City, Friday 16 March 2012, 9 am to 4.30 pm
The conference is to share evidence and practice based information about: what work in relation to suicide prevention and intentional self‐harm and new initiatives and advocate for effective and visible suicide prevention strategies and measures. It is intended for professionals working in government, justice, health, education, police, social services, corrections, non-government organisations, community agencies and groups, iwi based organisations and other interested groups.
Contact Information: Lorraine Coelho, Suicide Prevention Co-ordinator, Phone: 630 9943 ext 26408 or lcoelho "at" adhb.govt.nz
To register, RSVP by 1 March 2012
November
Annual candle lighting ceremony
Solace Support Group invites those who have lost a loved one to suicide to its annual candle lighting ceremony
St Columba Church, 92 Surrey Cres, Grey Lynn, Auckland
Sunday 13 November 2011, 4.45pm for a 5.00pm start
Please bring a photograph of your loved one for the remembrance table.Solace is a peer support group run by people who have lost a loved one to suicide. The group offers a supportive environment for grieving people to meet and share their experiences. Solace welcomes anyone from the wider Auckland region.
Following the ceremony a light supper will be served. All very welcome to attend. For more information contact solacesupport@paradise.net.nz Mark Wilson 360 6410 or Allan Aitken on 832 4571
September
World Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference
Wgtn 1-4 October 2012
Suicide prevention will be a key topic at the conference, which will bring together the world’s leading injury prevention and safety researchers, practitioners, policy makers and advocates to debate discuss and share information and expertise.
This is your chance to learn from the best, develop new skills, experience valuable training opportunities and take back some great initiatives to use in your own community.
The key theme of Safety 2012 is ‘Connecting pathways for a vibrant and safer future.’ This is your opportunity to make international connections with others who share similar goals and interests.
Safety 2012 is organised by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), Safe Communities Foundation New Zealand (SCFNZ), and the University of Otago’s Injury Prevention Research Unit (IPRU). There are also numerous partners and colleagues in New Zealand, Australia, and internationally who are contributing to the planning and success of the conference.
April
Live web broadcasts to focus on suicide prevention
The Mental Health Foundation is launching a new series of live and interactive online broadcasts in May aimed at answering the challenging question: “How Do We Talk About Suicide?”
The decision to launch the series is in response to public demand for greater access to information and what actions people can take in their families and communities to assist with suicide prevention.
The first broadcast will be at 10am on Wednesday 18 May. It will feature Professor Sunny Collings, a psychiatrist who has spent over two decades working with people at risk of suicide, and their families. Her published research during that time has included a focus on people with experience of mental illness, their carers and supporters.
Collings says that fear of saying or doing the wrong thing often prevents people from talking about suicide with their friends and loved ones, which can hinder help-seeking at crucial times of crisis.
“It may feel scary, but you need to be able to talk to your family about depression or suicidal feelings,” she says. “We hope this broadcast can provide some practical tools you can use in looking for warning signs in loved ones, how to respond when you think someone is at risk, and also how we can talk in a constructive way about suicide at the whole community level.”
Mental Health Foundation Chief Executive Judi Clements says the broadcast is the first in a series designed to encourage discussion about mental health and help-seeking within families, whanau and communities.
“We’d like to see ongoing dialogue about how everyone in New Zealand can flourish, and enjoy positive mental health and wellbeing. Suicide can be the tragic end result of a long history of problems, and by shedding light on the signs of depression and other risk factors, we can all be equipped with knowledge that can help prevent more unnecessary deaths.”
Future broadcast subjects will include cultural perspectives on suicide prevention, coping with suicide bereavement, and advice for families on supporting a loved one with an ongoing mental health problems.
The broadcasts, known as webinars, are online seminars which allow presenters to interact with an audience live over the internet. Audience members can register for the event online here.
Once registered, audience members are sent a link to a website where they can log on and view the presentation at the time of broadcast – 10am on Wednesday May 18. Any questions that audience members have can be sent in confidence to the presenter during the broadcast by typing into a chat window provided on screen, and will form part of the interactive discussion.
Registration for this webinar is limited to 50 participants. For those unable to attend the live event, it will also be recorded for later free viewing.
March
Minister pushes for new suicide reporting guidelines in 2011
Minister Peter Dunne is calling for new suicide reporting guidelines to be in place later this year. The associate minister of health said yesterday he wants to improve the understanding and handling of suicide in public forums.
He convened a roundtable meeting of media, mental health professional and researchers as a first step in coming up with new guidelines for media reporting of suicides. The meeting resolved to form a Working Group to report back by the end of April with an initial draft of recommendations and potential revised guidelines.
"We will then peer review the work done and look to widen the consultation, particularly involving those impacted by suicide. We will want their views and feedback," Mr Dunne says.
The Prime Minister's chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman and Chief Coroner, Judge Neil MacLean, will be briefed and brought into the process.
"What was notable was the extent to which both media and clinicians generally agreed on the outcomes we are looking to achieve, and how to get there," Mr Dunne says.
Last year, Prime Minister John Key directed the Ministerial Committee on Suicide Prevention to consider whether the current controls around suicide reporting in the media were appropriate following comments by the Chief Coroner. The Committee reported to the Prime Minister that the media guidelines had not been reviewed since first published in 1999 and that there would be benefit in undertaking a review.
Read the Ministerial Committee on Suicide Prevention report to the Prime Minister.
Suicide Prevention Information National Conference 2011
The Mental Health Foundation would like to announce the date, venue and theme for this year’s suicide prevention information conference
Theme: How do we talk about suicide?
Date: Thursday, 8 September 2011
Venue: Waipuna Hotel & Conference Centre, Auckland
Cost: TBC
Please visit the event page and sign up to our RSS news feed to receive updates on the conference. You can also receive information on the conference and regular suicide prevention information updates by following us on Twitter
February
Sunny Collings next Dean and Head of Campus at the University of Otago, Wellington
Associate Professor Sunny Collings is to be the next Dean and Head of Campus at the University of Otago, Wellington.
Dr Collings is currently an Associate Dean at the Wellington campus, where she has worked in joint academic and clinical roles for 19 years. She succeeds Professor Peter Crampton, who has become Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Health Sciences, for the University.
After graduating in Medicine from Otago in 1984, Dr Collings trained in psychiatry at the Royal Free Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital in London. In addition to her specialist qualifications in Psychiatry, she has completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health (with Distinction) and a PhD at Otago.
Dr Collings is Director of the Social Psychiatry and Population Mental Health Research Unit in the Department of Public Health at the Wellington campus. The Unit employs 28 staff and she currently supervises nine research students.
Her research interests include suicide, primary-care level interventions for mental health problems, carers for people with mental disorders, and the social experience of people with such disorders. Since 2007, her studies have attracted around $8.8 million in external research funding.
Vice-Chancellor Professor David Skegg says Dr Collings was selected from a strong field of local and external candidates, by a panel which included representation from the Capital & Coast District Health Board.
"I am delighted by her appointment as Dean at one of New Zealand's leading providers of medical and health research and teaching.
"Our Wellington campus has made excellent progress in recent years and I am confident that this will continue under her leadership," Professor Skegg says.
Professor Peter Crampton also says that he is delighted to welcome Dr Collings to the position.
"Her background as a senior clinician, successful researcher and senior administrator means she is ideally suited for this important leadership role. I very much look forward to working with her over coming years," he says.
Dr Collings says she is excited and honoured by her appointment and is ooking forward to working with these organisations to further collaborations for their mutual benefit.
She will continue her own clinical work in a small capacity for Capital & Coast, and maintain her current research collaborations on suicide prevention, primary care mental health and understanding treatment pressure in community mental health practice.
"I have a fantastic team of research staff and students doing interesting and important work and remaining an active member of that team is important to me while carrying out my new role."
Dr Collings takes up the position on 14 February, as a Professor.
January
QPR Level II Triage training available in March
This is an advanced level course designed for professionals in a position to have first contact with persons at risk for suicidal behaviours. This workshop prepares participants to make an initial assessment of risk for suicide and to 'triage' the at-risk person to a professional for further assessment and care.
This comprehensive eight-hour training programme includes instruction on how to interview potentially suicidal persons and determine immediate risk of suicide, as well as how to effectively and immediately reduce the risk of suicide attempt. In practical language, the course teaches participants how and what to say, what questions to ask, and to initially assess the immediate risk of a suicide attempt as well has how to carry out and document an effective referral.
See details in our events calendar.
Researcher looking for parents grieving the suicide of their child
PhD candidate Carol Capitano is looking for people to take part in her research, which is trying to determine if post traumatic stress disorder and complicated grief are affected when parents maintain a bond with the deceased child.
Continuing bond is openly defined by the parent. The survey is anonymous and will take around 20 minutes to complete, depending on how much information the participant would like to share. The survey may either be completed online or it may be printed out and mailed to the address listed on the website.
If you know of a parent who may be interested in this research, please direct them to the website. You may also find the study and additional information on tnis website.
Please do not hesitate to contact Carol if you have any questions.
Carol Capitano, PhD, candidate, APRN
MP Peter Dunne to convene meeting of media, experts on suicide reporting
The NZ Herald reports Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne will chair a roundtable meeting of media, mental health professionals and researchers early in the new year to update guidelines on media reporting of suicides.
The roundtable meeting will be a significant step towards updating the health Ministry’s Suicide and the Media resource, and Mr Dunne said it is hoped to also involve the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, and the Chief Coroner, Judge Neil MacLean.
