The co-directors of Te Ata Hāprara, Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick, Dr Tania Cargo (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Manu, Ngāpuhi), and Associate Professor Sarah Fortune received the awards, on behalf of Te Ata Hāpara and their transdisciplinary co-investigators, for two Ember Innovations Grants to develop two suicide prevention initiatives. Read more: one award will fund the co-design (with young people and rangatahi Māori) and implementation of a social media suicide prevention campaign, using TikTok – the platform with the greatest youth engagement. The aim is to produce safe and effective public health suicide prevention mass media campaigns that encourage young people to seek alternatives to suicide. The potential impact on reducing youth suicide rates in Aotearoa New Zealand is significant.
The other award will fund the co-design of a guideline for schools to increase their capacity to plan and host funerals and commemorations for students who have died by suicide. The current advice that discourages hosting funerals in school settings is based on theoretical models of suicide contagion and our frontline experience suggests this may not be followed. There are significant gaps particularly in relation to culturally mandated acts of respect such as haka and relatively little consideration of the discrimination inherent in schools hosting funerals for some students and not others. This research will provide a resource that positively and, in a culturally responsive way, supports whānau and schools who are helping their rangatahi/young people to cope with the unexpected death of a young person. The co-created guidelines will offer direct support to schools and reduce unsafe experiences which may be associated with suicide contagion.