Victim Support steps aside as suicide bereavement service
Photo:
123RF
A new provider for a national suicide bereavement service as been appointed after Victim Support decided not to renew its contract in order to focus on victims of crime.
Health New Zealand has appointed Te Rau Ora, a Māori-focused mental health and addiction organisation, to provide Haurahi Ora - National Interim Bereavement Triage and Coordination Service from 1 July until 31 December.
Victim Support's contract will end on 30 June. Victim Support chief executive James McCulloch said he advised Health NZ of its decision not to renew its contract in February.
"Victim Support was founded to support victims of crime. Over time, we also stepped in to provide suicide bereavement support where gaps existed.
"While our team has made a meaningful difference in this space, the landscape has changed. There are now a growing number of specialist providers who are better positioned to offer support."
Te Rau Ora has provided suicide prevention and postvention services with a te ao Māori focus for more than 20 years, Te Rau Ora innovation director May Leanne Pritchard told RNZ.
"We acknowledge and cater for all ethnicities and cultures, including our gay and Muslim communities," Pritchard said.
She could not comment on Health NZ's appointment process but said her organisation was approached and asked to submit a proposal to run the service in February.
Health NZ said the appointment of Te Rau Ora was an "interim solution" given the short timeframes involved.
"While Te Rau Ora has a focus on Māori suicide prevention, as an organisation they have the necessary population networks, relationships, and community connections to be able to provide an interim solution," Health NZ Hauora Māori service head of service development Jade Sewell said.
"In the coming months as part of the reconfiguration of the current suicide prevention services there will be a design phase and then advertising via GETS for new suicide postvention services will occur."
Pritchard said the name, Haurahi Ora, was gifted to to the service and referred to "the journey from darkness to light".
The appointment of a new provider without a formal tender process has raised some eyebrows in the sector.
Yellow Brick Road, which provides mental health support for families, said it had also been approached by Health NZ about providing a national service but had not had any communication since.
"After initially being approached by HNZ about our interest and capacity to extend our current support to whānau, we didn't have any further response when we offered to discuss what our role could be and possible alternative models. We are not aware of any formal consultation or expression of interest process having taken place for a new contract for suicide postvention service provision," Yellow Brick Road chief executive John Moore said in a statement to RNZ.
Health NZ did not respond to questions about what procurement process was followed for the interim appointment.
If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter
curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
36 minutes ago
- RNZ News
New data being considered in family harm and gender based violence research
A report into deaths from gender based violence from the National Mortality Review Committee has found there's been no significant reduction in the number of victims between 2009 and 2022. Photo: Unsplash/ Kristina Flour Maternal suicide, perinatal deaths and non-family homicides have all been included in a new report to try and get a full picture of violence against women and children in New Zealand. This is the ninth report on gender based violence for the National Mortality Review Committee. Dr Nicola Atwool, the chair of the Family Violence Death Review expert group, told Nine to Noon , that the reports have traditionally looked at family harm deaths, but in this report they were looking at the broader issue of femicide. She said little was known about some of these areas, including when women were killed by a non-family member, maternal suicide, and perinatal death. Maternal suicide is death while pregnant or within a year of giving birth. Perinatal death is the death of a baby during pregnancy or within 42 days after birth. Dr Atwool said there was a clear correlation with family harm for both maternal suicide and perinatal death. In the case of maternal suicide, Atwool said 63 percent of the women had recorded cases of family harm. But she said that was likely to be an undercount, because people often did not disclose family harm at the time it was happening. The report shows there were 41 cases of maternal suicide between 2006 and 2023, and of these, 26 (63 percent) had a police-reported family harm. Atwool said the report found that appropriate interventions during the period of pregnancy and after a baby is born could significantly reduce the number of lives lost. This was one of the areas they would be investigating further with other agencies. Dr Atwool said she also noted the ongoing inequities for wāhine and kōtiro Māori (Māori women and girls), compared with non-Māori. "We identified inequities in the rates of family violence homicide for wāhine and kōtiro Māori compared with non-Māori women and girls between 2018 and 2022. Had these inequities not existed, there would be approximately 25 more wāhine and kōtiro Māori alive today." NZ Police data showed that of the 1169 homicides in New Zealand between 2007 and 2022, 34 percent of victims were women, and more than half of those women (58 percent) had a family relationship to the offender. Dr Atwool said that despite a range of programme and efforts to address family violence there had been no significant decline in the number of homicides against women. "There are fluctuations, but no significant downward trend." The full report can be found here . If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Risk of contamination in rural school water extremely high, report says
The report says the notifications concerned 71 schools, down from 81 in 2023. Photo: RNZ The Water Services Authority says the risk of contamination in many school water supplies is extremely high. It said it was particularly worried about the presence of E. coli in some schools' drinking water. The authority's Drinking Water Regulation Report for 2024 said 71 schools reported at least one instance of faecal contamination of their drinking water last year. It said that put children at increased risk and school water supplies were a priority area for the authority. "The Authority has made our expectations clear to the Ministry of Education (MOE) to take action to address underlying causes and ensure safer drinking water is provided to children at these schools. We have seen some improvements, but this is a continuing priority area for the Authority," it said. The report said the Education Ministry was responsible for 418 schools that supplied their own drinking water, most were in the North Island and were in rural or remote locations. "The risk to drinking water quality at many self-supplied schools is extremely high, demonstrated by high incidences of water contamination. In 2024, 59 percent of laboratory notifications of E. coli were about self-supplied schools," it said. The report said the notifications concerned 71 schools, down from 81 in 2023. It said 24 schools "had repeat exceedances of E. coli indicating that issues are not being resolved in a way that prevents recurrence." In addition, testing of 145 schools with roof water sources found two had "exceedances" for lead, and one for copper, and one self-supplied school twice exceeded nitrate levels. The report said schools and the ministry needed to do more. "Although most self-supplied schools have bacterial treatment barriers in place, the high numbers of E. coli detections indicate that many of these barriers are likely not being operated or maintained effectively," the report said. It said the ministry had been progressing work to install treatment barriers in 17 self-supplied schools. The report said at one school a UV treatment unit had been accidentally turned off. "At the end of 2024, eight of the schools have now met treatment barrier requirements, and eight of the remaining nine have plans for installation or an alternative solution by December 2025," it said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
New hope for healing spinal cord injuries
science health 41 minutes ago Injuries to the spinal cord disrupt the signal between the brain and body, often resulting in a loss of movement and sensation. As it currently stands, most spinal cord injuries are incurable, but that could be about to change. Researchers from the University of Auckland have developed an ultra -thin implant that delivers gentle electric currents directly to the injured spinal cord and it's showing promising results. Professor Darren Svirskis talks to Jesse.
