Funding lift for suicide prevention specialist

Jamie Morton | 24th July 2010

A Wairarapa suicide prevention expert has been granted another two years working towards reversing the region's suicide rates.
The Ministry of Health has agreed to extend Barry Taylor's contract as suicide prevention co-ordinator at Wairarapa District Health Board, just months after funding looked unlikely.
The extension, to June 2012, came with a funding cut, but the DHB has said there was still enough money to cover wages.
Mr Taylor _ a highly qualified worker who holds decades of experience working in the field in Australia, the US and the UK, and is credited with helping to pioneer youth suicide prevention in the late 1980s _ was appointed to the role in 2008 at the start of a two-year government pilot.
Since then he has helped develop the Wairarapa Suicide Prevention Action Plan, trained staff and helped organise a major men's mental health symposium held in Masterton in March.
His next two years will see him implement the action plan while helping Wairarapa's primary mental health sector to better identify and manage people at risk of suicide.
Planning is also underway towards a community awareness campaign on depression and boosting the profile of those services already available nationally.
Welcoming the extension, Mr Taylor said: ''There's a great network of social services in the region and the next step is to see how we can work together to provide better responsiveness to people at risk.''
Suicide has been marked as a priority issue in Wairarapa, where more than 40 people have taken their own lives since 2003.