“Tāmaki Youth Wellbeing” is a direct response of our community experiencing a high number of youth suicides in 2017. We have been volunteering collectively from mid-2017 to create a united community response. Through out that time, we have engaged with over 90 community members – local community members, organisations, those directly affected by the loss of life from suicide, and youth. We now have a combination of eight ideas that the community have asked for, and we are actively look for funds and access to resources to test them out and see what will help to grow youth wellbeing in our community.
We started with a gathering on the 20th October – here’s a link to the Facebook event here. At that point, we also created a Facebook group that is currently active in Tāmaki – here.
Here is the full document with all of the information that was gathered on the night:
Tāmaki Youth Suicide Prevention – Creating a United Community Response
We also shared some resources with the community:
Youthline sent through a short document that details Best Practice to prevent youth suicide. Click on the link to go through to the document.
Le Va has a great website full of resources. Check out their Top 5 Tactics for preventing suicide for Pasifika. Le Va also did some great work around working alongside Pasifika youth.
Check out the LifeKeepers website, there are ongoing workshops that they offer. You will need to register to the site before you can enrol in the course.
For those of you interested in a longer more indepth read, check out this Youth suicide in New Zealand – Discussion Paper.
We’ve even had an expert reach out from Melbourne, Leah Walton is a Senior Clinician Co-ordinator from Early in Life Mental Health Services at Monash Health in Melbourne. A community that Leah has worked within, experienced a similar incident of youth suicide clusters, and she shared her experience in an email – Hello from Melbourne. Leah included a Postvention Toolkit for Suicide Postvention Toolkit for Secondary Schools.
A Melbourne group have also identified the impact of Social Media on our youth.
“What was quickly identified was how the role of social media and the internet was an integral part of the discussion. This was how many young people ended up being identified as well as identifying and educating well-meaning parents/family members and friends about the use of social media at times of high emotion and how this may impact (negatively and positively) on their young people, their families.”
For great information on young people, their mental health and technology check out this website http://www.youngandwellcrc.org.au/ .
Caroline Wilson came to Tāmaki to speak on the Friday 20th October Gathering. She’s from 1 Degree Workshops. Their website is here: https://www.1degreeworkshops.com/
Joseph Fa’afiu also came to speak on the Friday 20th October Gathering. He’s from HopeWalk Suicide Prevention Trust. Their website is here: http://www.hopewalk.nz/
Tāmaki Online 