Abstract
The Ministry of Health is inviting submissions on the second Draft Suicide Prevention Action Plan for 2025-2029. We have a unique opportunity to craft a Suicide Prevention Action Plan that is transformative rather than additive and acknowledges that the solutions required to prevent suicide are broad and far-reaching.
A whole-of-society approach is urgently needed to address long-standing high rates of suicide in NZ. This approach requires a policy re-set moving the responsibility of suicide prevention to all of government with long-overdue collaboration and action by all sectors, public and private, and much wider than health.
We need stronger leadership and robust local data and research to inform the implementation and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions that tackle the broader determinants of suicide in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This Briefing opens the conversation about what a whole-of-society approach might look like and what an effective Suicide Action Plan must include.