Submission to the Ministry of Health on the Draft Suicide Prevention Action Plan 2025-29

Content warning: this submission addresses the subject of suicide and self-harm. Reading this submission may be triggering or distressing. We encourage you to protect your wairua when engaging with this, and seek help if you need to. Find a list of support numbers here.

In this submission, we echo calls from children and young people who are urging action to tackle the immense and enduring challenges in child and youth mental health. This not only encompasses Aotearoa New Zealand’s high rates of suicide and suicidality, but also the underlying factors that contribute to it. We must address the systemic, intersectional, and intergenerational inequities that drive these harms.

Alongside the Ministry of Health’s focus on prevention, growing the workforce and cross-agency collaboration, Mana Mokopuna advocates for a public health approach to suicide prevention that places a specific focus on youth suicide, and which identifies and addresses the risk factors underlying suicide. These include financial hardship, family history of mental distress and suicide, experiences of violence and abuse, and societal factors such as colonisation, racism, discrimination, and views of, attitudes towards, and communication about suicide and self-harm.