Suicide data related to mental health service users (2016)

In New Zealand around 600 people die by suicide. Every death is a tragedy and has a significant impact on individuals and communities.

People who die by suicide are almost always acutely distressed, but are not necessarily mentally ill. Whether people accessed specialist mental health services prior to their death provides information on the nature of suicide in New Zealand, and highlights the fact that suicide is not necessarily linked to a mental health condition.

Deaths are only confirmed as suicide following a coronial process. Therefore, there is a lag between annual data being assessed.

The 2016 suicide data related to mental health service users has been extracted out of the Office of the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services Annual Report to enable easy access to information and publishing alongside other suicide data. The same information for prior years can be found within the Annual Reports. Caution should be taken when interpreting this data given the low statistical base.