History
How it all began
The 1990s saw particular concern about the issue of youth suicide in New Zealand. World Health Organisation data published in 1990 showed that New Zealand had the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world and, through the late 1990s, New Zealand continued to have the highest or second highest rates in the OECD.
Community groups argued for priority and resources to be given to adolescent health issues and suicide prevention in particular. The Government responded in 1998 by releasing a national youth suicide prevention strategy.
Among other initiatives, in early 1998 the Ministry of Youth Affairs sought to commission a suicide prevention resource for young people. The Mental Health Foundation and the Centre for Youth Health (part of South Auckland Health, later Counties Manukau DHB) worked together, securing well-known cartoonist Dylan Horrocks to produce SPIN, a single-issue comic book published later that year.
Runaway success
Exploring emotional issues for young people and emphasising the importance of young people in emotional pain seeking the right kind of help, SPIN was a runaway success. The Mental Health Foundation subsequently received further funding to produce a teaching resource, called for by schools, which built on the ideas SPIN introduced.
In late 1998 the Ministry of Youth Affairs issued a request for proposals to establish a national youth suicide prevention information service. Following SPIN's success, the Mental Health Foundation and Centre for Youth Health put forward a joint proposal. They were awarded the contract and the SPINZ (Suicide Prevention Information New Zealand) service was launched by the Minister of Youth Affairs in June 1999.
SPINZ's first 2 years were devoted to establishment activity: regional consultation, a website, a prevention service provider database, information collection, a community information kit and a pilot training programme were all achieved. Then, in 2001, following a positive evaluation, a significant increase in the contract's funding was announced, enabling SPINZ to dramatically increase its workshop schedule.
Contract broadened within Ministry of Health
The SPINZ contract later moved to the Ministry of Health and, from 2004, the service broadened to an all-ages brief rather than its initial youth-focused one, in line with the Government's national suicide prevention strategy for 2006-2016. A further funding increase in 2005 enabled the service to increase its capacity to reach a broader audience.
A national information service that aims to assist communities and services to prevent suicide by providing them with high quality information, SPINZ focuses on collecting, managing and disseminating information, and on translating high-level research into more easily accessible formats.
From 2005 its work has been guided at a strategic level by a multidisciplinary advisory group that includes suicide prevention practitioners and researchers, a social marketing and communications expert, and a medical librarian.
Wide reach of activities
SPINZ resources of particular note include fact sheets about suicide in Te Reo MÄori, Samoan, Niuean, Cook Islands MÄori and Tongan, and a resource, co-written with skylight, to help young people cope after the death of a loved one from suicide called After the Suicide of Someone You Know.
Recently, the Samoan suicide prevention resource Paolo: Embracing Our Samoan Communities was launched. This bilingual Samoan / English publication filled a gap in the information available to practitioners working with Samoan communities about suicide prevention.
Conferences and seminars have been an important part of SPINZ's work. A symposium was held annually from 2002 to 2007, focusing in its first 2 years on youth suicide research and interventions. Following the move to an all-ages brief, the symposium addressed males and suicide (2005), understanding suicidal behaviour (2006) and how collaborative work could enhance suicide prevention (2007). From 2008 the symposium and a seminar series will be held in alternate years. The inaugural seminar series in 2008 addressed suicide and the media.
New online era arrives
SPINZ is currently in a significant development stage, fuelled in part by opportunities presented by evolving technologies. In future, much of the service's information will be going online to reach an ever wider audience.
