After witnessing a suicide, and going through his own mental health challenges, Matthew Steans has made it his mission to reduce the number of people taking their own lives.
The former Timaru man has returned to New Zealand after eight years in the United Kingdom, and established a charity, Hope Upstream, which aims to tackle the number of suicides in the country each year through research, evaluation and development prevention initiatives.
The trust’s aim is to work towards zero suicide communities, and the charity’s first objective is to produce the Hope Report, which will evaluate international suicide prevention initiatives, and determine how they would work in NZ.
“Suicide has impacted me as it has with many people,’’ Steans said.
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“That and my own challenges with mental health have been key drivers in doing something.’’
He said suicide impacted approximately 135 people per death, and solving the issue “is the most important thing to me”.
In the year to June 2021, 607 people died in NZ by suspected suicide, compared to 628 in the previous 12 months, according to data released by the chief coroner’s office.
The data also showed suspected suicides fell among Māori and females and males aged 15 to 24, but increased for the Pasifika community.
Steans has made suicide prevention a personal crusade, having also lost a friend to suicide.
While living in London, Steans, now based in Christchurch, set up and ran Stigma Statistics – a social venture enabling suicide prevention.
The organisation provided technology solutions for real time suicide surveillance, and suicidal behaviour monitoring technology.
The data and technology used through the organisation worked through devices installed in high-risk public locations to monitor physical movement.
Researchers spent hours watching CCTV footage from the London Underground and identified behavioural patterns leading up to a suicide attempt, Steans said.
He said the technology identifies those patterns and alerts services to intervene.
“When I came back to New Zealand I wanted to bring that technology back here.’’
Hope Upstream was established to continue the work he did in the UK and make it relevant for New Zealand.
The charity will hold a fundraiser event, Pursuing Prevention, on October 14 to 16, where people can run, walk, bike, row or swim 1 kilometre, to acknowledge the number of deaths by suicide in New Zealand each year.
Couples and families throughout the country planned to take part, and Steans encouraged others to get on board and show their support.
As part of the Hope Report, Steans will also work with suicide prevention groups through the country.
He said every culture posed a different prevention challenge.
“There is some great suicide prevention work being done by local New Zealand organisations.
“Hope Upstream is about supplementing this work through technology design thinking and a real time, data-informed approach.”
“Thinking realistically he hoped the report would be published in about April or May, 2023.
The Hope Upstream Trust is made up of trustees, Don Jenkins, Lyndsey Dance, Nuk Korako and Joseph Tyro.
Trust member and Te Whatu Ora South Canterbury director of Māori health, Tyro, said he was recommended to the trust by the Institute of Directors Canterbury branch.
With a background in social work and the health sector for the past 20 years, Tyro said he became involved in the mental health sector as a member of the Banks Peninsula youth council in the late 1990s and later on as a youth worker.
“We helped establish a youth centre in our community to respond to some of these challenges,’’ Tyro said.
“I still volunteer at this youth programme today.’’
He said he supported Hope Upstream’s purpose and mission statement, and had been “highly impressed’’ with Steans’ vision “on this challenge that many of our communities face’’.
He was also impressed by Steans’ work with Stigma Statistics, and believed the trust could affect change.
He said while this could happen through the trust’s mission and purpose, hope was one of the most important principles.
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