Police say that 232 people in Auckland had killed themselves by mid-1998 - compared to a road toll of 99. And what about the overall five-year trend, which shows epidemic rises in young people ending their lives. It’s not just youth either; young men and women in their early 20s and 30s are giving up on life in record numbers.

Shocking new youth suicide figures show that one in four teenagers has tried or thought about taking his or her own life.

Youth suicides have moved up from between 120 and 130 a year from 1990 to 1993 to 137 in 1994. The latest figures, for 1995, show a leap to 156 suicides and 1310 hospital admissions from failed attempts.

The Injury prevention Research Centre survey of 1500 Auckland and Northland high school students shows that 18 percent had thought of suicide and 7 per cent had attempted it. The remaining 75 per cent had never thought about it.

Based on the 1995 figures, New Zealand has the second highest suicide rate for males aged between 15 and 24 behind Finland. In that age group four males take their lives for every one young female.

Excerpts from

Sunday Star-Times December 4, 1994

Auckland rate 232 to 99

By Alison Horwood

Police statistics reveal that 232 people in Auckland have killed themselves so far this year - compared to a road toll of 99.

Some of the cases reported have been classed as suicides by police inquest officers but have yet to receive a final ruling from the coroner.

The police and Auckland coroner say the suicide rate has now reached epidemic proportions. Self inflicted deaths in the first 10-months of 1997 already outstrip the 1996 figure and are more than double the 1995 rate.

In Auckland central there have been 127 suicide this year. In Waitakere, self inflicted deaths outnumber road deaths 39 to 10.

Acting Auckland coroner Mate Frankovich said people who fell victim were often young and male, but the problem was no longer restricted to teenagers. It affected people from all ages, cultures and walks of life. Suicides of young men could often be traced to being jilted by girlfriends, he said.

Many men could not cope with the shame of losing a job or suffering financial problems. A history of sexual abuse also seemed a common factor.

Mr Frankovich said most people did not leave a note, but often hinted at their suicide plans to friends and family.

"Suicide, like a great work of art, is prepared in the silence of the heart," said Albert Camus. Now there are recognised signs, none of which in themselves necessarily indicate a death wish, but which , in combination, just might. Pay attention if your child…

• Talks or writes about suicide
• Does artwork with death themes
• Gives away [prized possessions
• Shows a sudden apparent improvement from depression
• Makes unexpected apologies for past wrongs
• Goes in for minor self mutilations;
• Takes unnaturally long to get over a relationship bust up.

Garth George in the NZ Herald 5/11/97

"….What is it we must ask ourselves, that makes so many see life as an insurmountable problem rather than an exciting challenge; as a penance to be endured rather than an adventure to be grabbed with both hands?

One thing's for sure: it isn't a problem we can hand off, as we try to do with most things, to the Government. Granted successive Governments over the past few decades have helped to create a greedy, every-man-for-himself, dog-eat-dog society in which suicide might flourish. But we, the people, have allowed them to do it and now the ball is very firmly in our court.

…It's up to each and every one of us to ask ourselves: "What can I do, personally, to help to alleviate this dreadful affliction? Can I hold out the hand, not of help or advice or counseling, but of unconditional love and friendship to some person I know is having a bad time?"

And those of us who believe in a power greater than ourselves - be we Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu or whatever - must beg the God or gods we believe in to give us the humility, the wisdom, the tolerance, the patience, the kindness, the acceptance of others that might make us not only examples of life well lived but equip us to bring affirmation and hope to those who can't cope. "

New Zealand has the highest teenage suicide rate of all industrialised nations. By age 16, one in every 25 females and one in every 50 males will have tried to take their own life. - Project Adventure.

In the 15-24 year old age group the commonest cause of death is vehicle crashes (about 43 percent of youth deaths in the Northland region). A high proportion of drivers were intoxicated. It should be noted that a number of the vehicle crashes are thought be be suicide - Northland Health.

New Zealand has the second highest teenage pregnancy rate of all the industrialised countries - Project Adventure.

In 1994, females aged between 15 and 19 accounted for 19 percent of all abortions, but onlt 7 percent of all live births - Department of Statistics 1995.

25 - 35 percent of young people aged between 15 and 17 get drunk at least once a month in the Auckland/Northland region. 35-54 percent of young people between the ages of 18-19 get drunk once a month - Alcohol & Public Health Research Unit, 1993

24 per cent of 15-17 year olds have tried marijuana in the last 12 months - Alcohol & Public Health Research Unit, 1993.

Every year 50,000 young people leave school. An estimated 7000 of them face a bleak future including long term unemployment - Employment Task Force.

By Mary Jane Boland NZ Herald 30-10-97

Mate Frankovich took a rare and strong stand yesterday, saying he had a moral duty to speak out about the increase in suicide, which had reached epidemic proportion.

The problem was a national one but he believed from talking to other coroners that Auckland youth were particularly at risk from an astonishingly high suicide rate.

The Auckland office deals with at least one suicide every fortnight where young people - with no history of mental illness - have decided to end their lives.

Mr Frankovich said he was appalled at the "aimless, purposeless" lives many youngster led.

He pointed to a breakdown in family values as a leading cause. Although legislation usually limits the reporting of details about suicide, Mr Frankovich said he was using his position's authority to discuss examples where young people had needlessly taken their own lives. By raising awareness of the problems he hoped to prevent further deaths…

Self inflicted deaths in Auckland in the first 10 months of this year already outstrip the 1996 figure and are more than double the 1996 rate.

Police statistics show 232 people in Auckland have killed themselves so far this year - more than twice the road toll of 99.

Mr Frankovich blamed some parents for the high suicide rate, saying many failed to instill a sense of self esteem or confidence in their offspring.

(Excerpts from the feature by Dennis Welch in the New Zealand Listener December 6, 1997)

….between the first cartoons on Saturday morning and the last infomercials on Friday night another three young lives have been voluntarily snuffed out. That makes 156 a year - and for every one who does it, 10 more try and fail…The startling thing about New Zealand's youth suicide rate is that it has nearly quadrupled in the past 20-years. In 1976, just 42 people aged between 15 and 2 took their own lives; but the rate began to climb dramatically from the late 70s on, with particular sharp increases in the late 80s.

The alarm bells first rang in 1988, when it was found that the suicide rate of young men had trebled in 20 years; they rang again a month ago when the headfline "Suicides Far Outnumber Road Deaths" awoke Aucklanders to the gruisly fact that so far this year 232 people in their city had killed themsleves, compared with a road toll of "only" 99.

"People are generally tired of the extremely limited 'perfect' narrow intellectual scientific material approach to life, and the youth of today is so tired of this and its limitations that they are beginning to feel that there must be more to life than this (maybe this is one of the reasons we have such a high suicide rate amongst our teenagers)." - Carl Jung, 1961

The most comprehensive suicide study this country has ever seen, the Canterbury Suicide Project, has been analysing data collected over the past six years relating to 202 suicides and 302 suicide attempts…The first thing it's crucial to understand says principal investigator Annette Beautrais is that there is no single, simple, clear cut underlying youth suicide. There are multiple causes, the main ones being:

• Childhood disadvantage or difficulty such as family conflict or sexual abuse.
• Drug use disorders
• Anti-social behaviour
• The triggering of the suicide attempt by some life crisis such as the break-up of a relationship or troble with the law.
• Psychiatric problems: a third of the projects sample have a history of psychiatric admission and 90 percent have at least one psychiatric disorder, eg depression.
• Parental problems
• Low socio-economic status, unemployment and poverty per se are not significant factors.