Editorial: The deaths that leave us bewildered

Mark Dawson, Editor of Wanganui Chronicle

Thirteen people committed suicide in Whanganui in the past year - our highest total for the past decade.

That's what the provisional figures for the Whanganui District Health Board tell us.

We average 10 self-inflicted deaths each year - 93 in the past nine years.

Nationally, the 2015-16 year has produced the biggest toll - 579 - since such statistics were first introduced in 2007-08.

Of course, data only tells you so much - each death being a story in itself, often largely hidden.

The data tells us we have a problem, and that it is possibly a growing one. It tells us that female suicide rose by 34 compared to the previous year, but that men are still more likely to kill themselves - especially if they are in their 20s, and especially if they are Maori.

And yet for many years, suicide has been kept hush-hush. It is the thing that doesn't get talked about in private, and not much in public either - it is almost a taboo subject.

Even from a distance, it is something that leaves us feeling bewildered and impotent.

Most of us get depressed from time to time; many of us have muttered to ourselves "I wish I was dead", but few take that seriously.

It spooks us. What can it be that pushes someone over the edge? What torment were they in? It seems beyond comprehension.

And that torment is then, of course, reflected in the loved ones they leave behind who must endure the baffling loss.

The suicide statistics were released this week by the Chief Coroner, but didn't attract much attention or provoke much debate. Other things in the news cycle grabbed the headlines.

Encouragingly, rules around the media reporting of suicide have been relaxed a little and there has been some effort by agencies - some of them here in Whanganui - to get the subject out into the open.

Chief Coroner Judge Deborah Marshall said there needed to be more discussion about suicide prevention and how family, friends and colleagues can identify someone at risk and help them get support.

"Everyone should recognise the importance of taking suicidal thoughts seriously and knowing where to get help."

Well said.