Korinda Taylor
Last week Korinda Taylor gave a talk on 'Life Matters, Suicide Prevention Trust' at the Nanking Palace, our fabulous alternative venue.
Korinda's talk was informative and personal as she started the trust after her own son committed suicide while studying at Otago university back in 2013. Ross Taylor is pictured in the landscape below.
Korinda started the trust because she felt let down by mental health services and that Ross's suicide could have been prevented. Her aim is simply stop people dying from suicide.
The trust was started with $10. There has been a 'World Suicide Prevention Day' in 2014,2015 and 2016 each year growing in support for the Trust. Despite the support and growing awareness around suicide, the number of suicides is still slowly growing.
Youth, 15-24 years of age make up 34.7% of the total suicides.
Females are 2.4x more likely to self harm but males are more likely to commit suicide.
There is a higher suicide rate in Maori and Polynesian groups.
In 2016 there were 322 road deaths and 579 Suicides in New Zealand.
1 in 20 people will experience suicidal thoughts.
Korinda and the trust are trying to find out why the rate is so high in New Zealand. 50% of the people who died had no contact with mental health services at all and there is little access for people in New Zealand for free counselling. all issues which the Trust wants to address.
Korinda runs 'SAFE talk' a suicide awareness workshop in workplaces, prisons and the university. This is a massive undertaking for Korinda on her own. Funding for the programme has now been cut and Korinda is looking at funding applications for administration in the Trust.
The Trust run street collections, one of which we helped out with in 2016 and they have stalls at gala days all of which need manpower. They do have a lot of interaction with people at these events which shows that they are welcomed and people really need the services and information from the Trust. Korinda said that there were two people at one of the events and they were over run with people and they were both exhausted by the end of it.
As suicide affects one in four people in some way, we should continue to support Korinda and the Trust in any way we can. Korinda is looking to expand the network, spread awareness and destigmatize the subject of suicide and mental health.