Suicide Prevention - Seeking the Alternative Mental Health Approach

Diagnosis:

Your serotonin levels are acting up.

You're depressed.

You have a mental disorder.

You have a chemical imbalance.

Solution:

Psychiatric medication.

Risks:

Homicidal behaviour, suicidal thoughts, carrying out homicide, carrying out suicide... plus a whole host of other adverse reactions, none more final than suicide itself.

Easy to jump on the bandwagon and slam psychiatry, the pharmaceutical industry and even medicine regulators around the world.

I've been writing about this for over 6 years now so it was exciting to be offered the chance to talk at Casper's annual suicide prevention conference in Auckland yesterday.

The two day event saw speakers from around the world pretty much on the same page with regard to prevention needless deaths to suicide, of which there is a huge problem in New Zealand.

Last week the Chief Coroner released the latest suicide statistics here in New Zealand. In a nutshell they are increasing, particularly in children.

For 30 years Kiwi's have been told there is a suicide problem, each time they are told this they are given some false hope that work is in progress to bring those figures down.

This year that hope comes with the promise that $62 million dollars is being ploughed into the mental health system, a system where patients are 21 times more likely to kill themselves opposed to those outside of the system.

The system is broke so it needs fixing but it is going to take patient advocates to do this because the New Zealand government have either been blinded by the pharmaceutical dollar or they epitomize the definition of the word 'stubborn'.

With what can only be described as a disgraceful attitude the NZ powers that be refuse to listen to possible alternatives to their own failures, deciding instead to continue of a path of destruction.

Casper's annual conference offered many possible alternatives to bringing down the suicide rate, no government official attended, they actually believe that reporting of suicide and talking openly about it will increase it, so much so that they suppress information reporting suicides and slam fines on those posting publically about it.

Well, yeh - that's working eh?

The government here are in such a mess when it comes to suicide prevention that they really just don't know what to do about it...apart from reject possible solutions.

The Casper conference was kicked off by the Dean of the Starr Commonwealth Institute for Training, Larry Brendtro  and his Circle of Courage model. Larry spent all day with members of the field of psychiatry and the public showing them how it can be easy to work with the youth of today, in other words why drug kids when, once you understand them, you can work with them.

His workshop went down well and people were still talking about it the following day, a day kicked off by Tony Coates who has 30 years experience in Psychotherapy and Psychiatry.


Tony's two hour talk saw him addressing psychiatrys practice of making diagnoses of disorders that do not exist in any medical scientific sense, also pointing out that treating these apparent disorders with drugs can lead to horrific problems to those taking them due to them being neurologically toxic. Coates pulled no punches when speaking of these medications and their links to suicide.

It was refreshing to see someone from the field speaking out against this profession and the drugs that, in essence, pay their wages.

In and around Brendtro and Coates others took to the podium each offering possible alternatives to the NZ government pimping of mental health services.

Dr Graham Mead's presentation focused on the process of emotional integration in a practical and accessible way. Mead, a former Medical Doctor in South Africa, focused mainly on training and teaching the internal art of Tai Chi.

Lynley Frame, a nurse turned Reiki Master, showed how the art of Reiki, a subtle and safe natural vibrational healing system, is being used more and more as alternatives to modern day medicine. No side effects have ever been reported after a Reiki session but many have benefited from this ancient therapeutic art.

Two hour long sessions shared by Stacey Waterson, Judi Jacobsen and Megan Longman showed how art and play can help both troubled adults and children whilst later Casper's CEO, Maria Bradshaw offered two presentations, 'Sociological and Indigenous Approaches to Suicide Prevention' and 'Effective Interventions for Children and Adolescents Bereaved by Suicide'

I can't big up Maria Bradshaw enough, I knew she worked hard but actually watching her over the past few weeks prepare for this event even made me sweat!

Monica McClusker, a former pharmaceutical designer and coordinator, offered a talk on Holistic Nutrition, something that she firmly believes can help far more than drugs offered by the pharmaceutical industry. Eat happy, be happy.

I gave a talk myself about the pharmaceutical industry and withdrawing from SSRi type medication whilst the two day event was rounded off with a talk by Peter Caughey on acupuncture and the evidence that surrounds its use in treating patients who are experiencing troubles in their daily routines.

The whole two day event was symbolized by 547 pairs of shoes that ran the length of the corridor of the Waipuna Hotel in Mt Wellington, Auckland. 547 being the number of suicides that were, earlier this month, released by the chief coroner.

Casper are trying to prevent suicide, they are offering possible solutions and they, on a weekly basis, give presentations and training that shows that the current government in NZ are ploughing money into a system that broke a very long time ago.

Casper do not accept any government funding, choosing instead corporate sponsorship and donations from the public. It's stood them well.

The efforts of all those connected with Casper should be applauded. Their doggedness and tenacity to bring about change and prevention may just save the lives of those that the NZ government and Mental Health services are pushing toward suicide rather than preventing it. All one has to do is read the facts and not the spin given by so-called government hired experts who are really only experts of their own minds and not on the minds of others.

With the latest stats released from the chief corner that show a 46% increase in suicide rates between the ages of 15 to 19 year olds in general and a staggering 76% increase [same age group] in the Maori population, it's blindly obvious that the government/mental health approach is one borne of ignorance and a 'we don't really care' attitude of the pen pushing ignoramus who just doesn't want to get his/her hands dirty.

This attitude sees the hoo-har Henry's and Henrietta's of officialdom wash their hands on a daily basis with the blood of those that are dying before them at an alarming rate. The current protocol set out by these stubborn and uneducated departments of 'I'm all right Jack' knuckleheads will only increase the suicide rate.

Peter Dunne, the minster responsible for the prevention of suicide in New Zealand, needs to either put up or shut up. Tackling these deaths with, "I't's a complex issue", is a defeatist attitude and laughable given that your average working mother in New Zealand [Maria Bradshaw] can bring together experts who offer alternatives and solutions to a problem that will not go away unless people like suicide specialist's, such as Annette Beautrais, stop refering to children as having having some form of mental disorder and then recommending the use of drugs that actually double the risk of suicide. The NZ government are, it appears, promoting a conveyor belt of children and teens that will fall off at the end into the never ending pit of suicide.

I'll be writing about Beautrais in a future blog.

It does not take a rocket-scientist to work out what is wrong here in New Zealand. Complex issue? It's simple and, believe it or not, it is preventable.

21 gun salute for Casper.

21 defective egos for the NZ government.

The Casper website can be found HERE





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