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originally posted by: putnam6
originally posted by: chr0naut
originally posted by: Lysergic
originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: Lysergic
Perhaps the USA isn't the big deal you think it is?
Says a kiwi roflmao, enjoy your island.
Islands (plural). Tropical Pacific ones, too.
Enjoy your little ashtray of industrial dreams.
I would agree it sounds idyllic and beautiful, but why are there so many teen suicides? 15-19-year-olds specifically... it seems weird for such a paradise. As well as perhaps changing the name to Aotearoa, will help lift up the native population
www.bbc.com...
Think of New Zealand and what likely comes to mind is beautiful nature - fjords, mountains and magnificent landscapes, vast, empty and endless.
But for years already, the country has been struggling with another form of isolation - depression and suicide.
A new report by Unicef contains a shocking statistic - New Zealand has by far the highest youth suicide rate in the developed world.
A shock but no surprise - it's not the first time the country tops that table.
The Unicef report found New Zealand's youth suicide rate - teenagers between 15 and 19 - to be the highest of a long list of 41 OECD and EU countries.
The rate of 15.6 suicides per 100,000 people is twice as high as the US rate and almost five times that of Britain.
There's a combination of reasons, and it's important not to only focus on one statistic, warns Dr Prudence Stone of Unicef New Zealand.
The high suicide rate ties in with other data, showing for instance child poverty, high rates of teenage pregnancies or families where neither of the parents have work.
New Zealand also has "one of the world's worst records for bullying in school", says Shaun Robinson of the Mental Health Foundations New Zealand.
He explains there is a "toxic mix" of very high rates of family violence, child abuse, and child poverty that need to be addressed to tackle the problem.
New Zealand's own statistics also reveal that suicide rates are highest for young Maori and Pacific Islander men.
"This shows us there are also issues around cultural identity and the impact of colonisation," he says.
According to the most recent data of 2014, the suicide rate among Maori men across all age groups is around 1.4 times that of the non-Maori.
"It is alarming to see - and perhaps it is an indicator of the level of institutional and cultural racism in our society," says Dr Stone.
wellington.scoop.co.nz...