Presentations
Opening Address
Hon Jim Anderton
Associate Minister of Health
Jim Anderton has responsibility for the Government's Suicide Prevention Strategy. He has a long-standing interest in the provision of health care, especially for areas that have not had much attention in the past, such as mental health and suicide prevention. He is MP for the Wigram electorate in Christchurch, where he has worked hard to see improved health care and counselling services. He is also leader of the Progressive Party, a coalition member in the Labour-led Government. The Progressive Party sees its role as ensuring that the most vulnerable in our society are looked after. Mr Anderton's family has had personal experience of the trauma caused by suicide.
His opening address drew on his experience as Associate Minister of Health with responsibility for suicide prevention and his personal experience of suicide. He briefly discusses the theme of World Suicide Prevention Day: think globally, plan nationally, act locally, and outlined the Government's role in suicide prevention and his perspective on promoting safe reporting and portrayal of suicide in the media.
His address includes reference to the New Zealand Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan. Mr Anderton conveys his support for the SPINZ seminar series and encourages collaboration among media professionals, health professionals and others working in suicide prevention, and government.
View Jim's presentation as a webcast.
Suicide and the Media: What we know and what we don't know
Associate Professor Jane Pirkis
Principal Research Fellow, Centre for Health Policy, Programs and Economics, Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne
Together with Warwick Blood, Jane Pirkis is responsible for the internationally-recognised Media Monitoring Project, which examined the extent, nature and quality of media reporting of suicide and mental illness in Australia for a full year. Jane is currently working with Warwick on a follow-up project to examine whether media reporting has changed over time. Her research interests also include the epidemiology of suicidal behaviour and the evaluation of large-scale suicide prevention initiatives.
Read the PDF.
View Jane's presentation as a webcast.
Media Freedom and Suicide Coverage: A contrary view
Jim Tucker
Head of Journalism, Whitireia Journalism School, Wellington
Jim Tucker says he is not an academic (although he holds a Master of Arts Degree in communication studies, with his thesis addressing media ethics). He is a journalist, editor, teacher and, lately, a blogger (jimtucker.wordpress.com), with 22 years as a working journalist, culminating in editorship of the Auckland Star and Sunday Star.
Jim taught journalism at ATI (now AUT) for 12 years from 1987, at Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki for 5 years, had 3 as Executive Director of the NZ Journalists Training Organisation, and now he's back teaching. He wrote and edited the journalism textbooks used in our journalism schools from 1991 to 2007.
View Jim's presentation as a webcast.
Suicide and the Media: Pending New Zealand research
Associate Professor Brian McKenna
Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research, University of Auckland
As well as Director of the Centre for Mental Health Research, Brian McKenna is an Associate Professor in Nursing at Auckland University and holds a senior clinical position as Nurse Consultant for the Auckland Regional Forensic Psychiatry Services, Waitemata DHB.
He has a PhD in Psychiatry looking at the experiences of consumers under the Mental Health Act. With experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Brian has been involved at a senior level in a number of significant research projects. These canvassed areas such as: problem gambling in prisons; the link between gambling and unreported crime; the relationship between mental illness and homicide; reviewing violence guidelines and associated training materials for mental health services and various projects looking at the interface between mental health and the law.
He was the principal investigator in research that focused on the relationship between mental illness, the media and homicide.
Download his PowerPoint resentation.
View Brian's presentation as a webcast.
Suicide Prevention and the Media: Safe reporting in the context of a national plan for suicide prevention
Jenny Skinner
Policy Analyst, Ministry of Health
Jenny Skinner has worked on suicide prevention policy in the Ministry of Health for the past 4 years. She was closely involved in the development of the New Zealand Suicide Prevention Strategy and Action Plan.
Promoting the safe reporting and portrayal of suicide is one of Jenny's key areas of work. This has included discussions with media professionals, researchers, health professionals and other stakeholders about issues surrounding suicide and the media, and developing knowledge of international research and guidelines.
Jenny also works on policy issues relating to mental health promotion and prevention of mental illness and the Like Minds, Like Mine programme to address stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness.
View Jenny's presentation as a webcast.
Challenging the Taboo: Reporting suicide effectively
Paul Thompson
Group Executive Editor, Fairfax New Zealand
Paul Thompson is the Group Executive Editor of Fairfax Media, New Zealand's largest media company. He was formerly editor of The Press in Christchurch. As a journalist and editor, he has been closely involved in coverage of suicide as a public health issue.
Download his PowerPoint presentation.
View Paul's presentation as a webcast.
Peter Gush
View the welcome by Murdoch Pahi, and Peter's presentation as a webcast.
Dr Sunny Collings
View Sunny's presentation as a webcast.
Merryn Statham
View Merryn's presentation as a webcast.
The Panel Session
View the Panel Session as a webcast.
