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Rumours don’t match reality

Hannah Martin hannah.martin@stuff.co.nz

There is no evidence suicide rates increased during the Covid-19 Delta lockdown, despite rumours to the contrary.

There have been fewer coronial inquiries opened into suspected self-inflicted deaths between July and October this year than in the same period from 2016-2020, acting Chief Coroner Anna Tutton said.

During the 2020 level 4 lockdown the Chief Coroner, the Mental Health Foundation, and police had to refute rumours suicides had increased.

New Zealand moved into alert level 4 on August 18, after the first Delta case was discovered.

After 107 days in lockdown for Auckland and a number of alert level changes for other parts of the country, New Zealand moved into the traffic light system yesterday.

The lockdown – Auckland’s fifth and longest since the pandemic began – was distressing and traumatic for many.

Three weeks into the lockdown, Lifeline reported the number of calls and texts to its helpline had increased almost 40 per cent compared to alert level 4 in 2020.

On average, there were 500 calls and texts to 1737 per day during lockdown, peaking on August 29 with 783.

Whakarongorau’s mental health and addictions services saw an elevation in call volumes and an increase in the complexity of calls, but fewer people were contacting the services compared with level 4 in 2020.

In the year to June, 607 people died by suspected suicide, compared to 628 in the previous 12 months, according to data released by the chief coroner’s office in October. It continued a ‘‘downwards trend’’ in cases since numbers peaked in 2017, Tutton said.

When the data was released, the Mental Health Foundation said ‘‘persistent rumours’’ that lockdowns caused ‘‘dramatic spikes’’ in suicide rates and numbers should be quelled by the statistics.

At the time, chief executive Shaun Robinson said the foundation was aware of increased levels of distress, especially in Auckland, due to the effects of the pandemic. However, ‘‘speculation that this will lead to increases in suicide is unfounded’’, he said.

This week, Robinson said it was reassuring the rumours were false, which was ‘‘already apparent’’ from the annual statistics. However, the risks to mental health and wellbeing following lockdown were ‘‘extremely real’’, and so was the danger of the ‘‘long tail’’.

Robinson said the clear feedback the foundation had been hearing was that people were struggling with their mental wellbeing, experiencing increased low moods, negative emotions, anger, frustration and fear. ‘‘We are all dealing with the grief that life is not going to go back to the way it was.’’

Robinson said that wouldn’t go away simply because Auckland was moving out of lockdown. ‘‘People are really struggling, unless we respond to that and really invest in boosting wellbeing, strategies and supports to cope in this new world, there’s a significant risk.’’

Robinson said it was more important than ever to give people strategies and ideas to keep their wellbeing as intact as possible as the country moved into ‘‘trying to manage living with Covid’’.

National News

en-nz

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-04T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281668258260367

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