Extra pressure aimed at agencies

By TOM CLARKE

More pressure will be put on government agencies and others to tackle the problem of youth suicide more effectively.

That pressure will come from the Ministry of Youth Affairs, which has just appointed a national coordinator of youth suicide prevention, Debbie Edwards.

The chief executive of the ministry, Anne Carter, says one of Ms Edwards' main tasks will be to put pressure on relevant government agencies to fund and undertake youth suicide initiatives.

She will ensure that all youth suicide prevention work within the Government is linked and coordinated for maximum effectiveness.

She will also be involved with community groups and organisations already working in prevention, and with health professionals, academics and researchers.

"Our view is that there is a need for these people to be talking to each other," Ms Carter says.

"We see our job as facilitating that and basically trying to get a consensus on the way forward in terms of dealing with youth suicide.

"There has already been a fair bit of work done, but Debbie's job is to get more momentum and more focus on implementing the Government's In Our Hands youth suicide prevention strategy.

"There are things that government agencies and local government can be doing and community organisations as well," she says. "It's not just a community responsibility or a Government responsibility. I am confident that we can succeed, because the Government's framework strategy is a really good one.

"There was a consultative process to develop it and we had experts working on it, and it stacks up well against the strategies of other countries.

"I'd like to say it will only take us 12 months to make a difference, but I think it'll take several years, unfortunately."

Ms Carter says the Government is committed to reducing the level of youth suicide and youth suicide prevention programmes received a $2.8 million boost in the Budget.

The package contained three initiatives: a new service to help and monitor young people already identified as at risk; an extension of a programme to make youth suicide prevention training and information available; and the maintenance of a development programme that supports young people within their local communities.

Ms Edwards is a project manager with the Ministry of Health in Auckland. She works in immunisation and has also been in the mental health sector.

She has been a consultant with the Mind Matters Trust and project manager and research fellow in the Maori and Pacific health department at the Auckland University School of Medicine.

The community needs to be involved in ministry-led strategy, Ms Carter says, so Kelvin Stephens has been appointed to the ministry as policy analyst, youth suicide prevention.

Mr Stephens, a youth mental health promoter with Toi Te Ora Public Health/Pacific Health in Tauranga, has been a community youth development worker. Ms Carter says he has effectively implemented the Government's strategy in his own work.