Of course the Ministry turned down doing anything meaningful about suicide
Ministry declines funding for Gumboot Fund counselling service, Mike King claims
The Ministry of Health has refused a request for a financial top up for youth counselling charity, Gumboot Friday, frontman Mike King claims.
But instead of being “angry or upset” about the decision, King claimed he was using the knock back as motivation.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday afternoon, King has called on New Zealanders to help raise $5 million on the Gumboot Friday in April next year “so our kids can get the counselling they deserve”.
Of course the Ministry turned down something as innovative as Mike’s suicide prevention programme, because since when did the Ministry manage to do anything meaningful when it comes to suicide?
After being asked to apply and then getting smacked down is shameful.
Mike’s programme bypasses the ridiculous wait many who ask for help are forced to endure and gets immediate them immediate counselling without the red tape.
The Ministry however loves red tape and a programme that bypasses their lumbering response to suicide threatens that.
Mike’s ability to find optimism and keep fighting the fight marks him out as a remarkable New Zealander.
I’m still not sure what the Ministry thinks it’s actual role is, suicide prevention or preventing NGOs from upstaging them.
It needs to move away from the Ministry of Health. Having a medical model of suicide is part of the problem.
Read this important document to get a hook into suicide causes and prevention. It’s also odd that I can’t get this paper off a New Zealand website.
http://malesuicidepreventionaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CASPERSuicidePreventionWhitePaper.pdf
I came home disabled in 1998 after being heavily chemically exposed in a workplace without adequate ventilation.
Being chemically poisoned on a job working in Toronto for over six months I went through a partial clinical detoxification in Florida then allowed to come home, so I went to the Ministry of Health for direction as to where I should go, and they said they have no treatments for chemical poisoning so can you believe that?????
We need a ‘new medical system’ I think – brought up to date with overseas medical treatments.
Mike you are a gem.
Calls to mind a quote which may be apt or not. I’ll put it because it may resonate with others’ feelings.
“Though the mills of God grind slowly,
yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting,
with exactness grinds He all.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longellow
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/255749-
Could this apply to those ir-responsible for public health in the Misery of Health (a term used by Rosemary – who knows)?