There were four the next year, then 18 the year after. There were 16 no threat to life incidents in the first four months of the 2020/2021 financial year. There were two deaths by apparent suicide at the Otago Corrections Facility in the 2015/2016 financial year and one at Invercargill Prison. All are still active before the coroner. Corrections reported no other apparent suicides in the prisons since. Corrections acting deputy chief executive health Damian Tomic said a considerable number of the no threat to life incidents at Invercargill Prison since June 2019 were attributed to one individual with significant health requirements. Tomic said suicide was often the single most common cause of death in correctional settings worldwide.
The figure of 58,124 calls is in a briefing to the new police Minister, Poto Williams.
The briefing also said police attend 90 percent of suicide calls and 45 percent of other mental health calls. We want to ensure increases in demand can be managed and that people in mental distress and crisis get the right help at the right time, the briefing said.
A police spokesperson said the responsibility for providing services under the Mental Health Act primarily rests with mental health services but police provide assistance where legislation provides for police intervention. Our frontline staff undergo mental health training as recruits, and police have refresher e-learning modules available for all staff. Staff also undergo a two-yearly refresher custodial training which has specific focus on vulnerable people and suicide prevention, a police spokesperson said.
Remembering Kim . . . Heading out to leave two rocks in memory of Kim Raines in Oamaru on Sunday are (from left) Lisa and Annabelle (3) Wilson, Anna Scarlett and Holly McCone.
She carries the rocks with her up mountains and leaves them at the summit for others to find.
“You are loved” reads one rock, hand-painted blue, with two daisies on it. The other side has a message of hope and the phone number for Lifeline.
When Kim Raines (nee Pryor) took her own life in August, Anna Scarlett started painting rocks with tributes to her friend, leaving them around as a means to work through her own grief, while also hoping she might lift others out of their moments of darkness.