Little support for families hit by suicide - mother

Maria Bradshaw, mother of the deceased Toran Henry. Photo / Herald on Sunday

People dealing with a suicide in the family are literally left to clean up the mess.

Maria Bradshaw, whose son Toran Henry committed suicide in 2008, told a public meeting in Auckland last night that there was very little support for the families of suicide victims.

"If your loved one is murdered, the police have a commercial cleaning company to clean up the mess. If it is a suicide, there is no fund. You have to clean it up yourself," Ms Bradshaw said.

She was speaking at the launch of the Community Action on Suicide Prevention, Education and Research (CASPER) - a new support group set up to help families dealing with suicide.

Victim Support spokeswoman Emily Marden said her organisation provides a support person to families who have experienced suicide and last year helped over 800 families.

She said the organisation will help people in rented homes find a new home if they need to and help access a commercial cleaner through WINZ if they have a community services card.

"We do feel it is a ludicrous anomaly that the Crown will pay for the clean up for a homicide but not for a suicide," Ms Marden said.

A spokeswoman from police said the police will pay for a commercial cleaner after a suicide "on a case by case basis".

Ms Bradshaw said her group saw suicide as a social problem and was campaigning for the issue to be openly discussed in public.

"If it could happen to an average middle class Takapuna family - it could happen to any family," Ms Bradshaw said.

She said she cries "80 per cent of the time" and has lost her home, job and friends after the death of her son.

"Suicide is such a taboo. I've lost almost all my friends - apart from my son's friends - since Toran died. People don't know what to say. I see the fear in their eyes. They'll cross the street and look the other way," Ms Bradshaw said.

About 30 people turned out to the launch, many of whom had lost family and friends to suicide. At the front of the room were 541 candles to represent those that had taken their own life last year.

Ms Bradshaw was also critical of ACC.

"Sadly one of those candles is for a woman who, when she got the letter from ACC which said she was not sufficiently diagnosed with clinical depression, she killed herself that night," Ms Bradshaw said.

She said her group hoped to review the coroner's records on suicide every year to monitor how and why so many young people are committing suicide.

Members of The Citizens Commission on Human Rights - a group set up by the Church of Scientology in 1969 - were also at the meeting.