By Charlotte Tonkin
The head of the Family Court says alarming numbers of people who go through the court commit suicide, and until the court system communicates better with mental health organisations - more will take their own lives and the lives of others.
Principal Family Court Judge, Peter Boshier says the number of suicides by people involved in Family Court cases is heartbreaking.
“Quite often we get told someone is so upset and distraught they feel like killing themselves, at the moment there's not a lot we do about it,” he says.
Over 12 months, Judge Boshier says there were four homicide deaths and 18 deaths which were suspected suicides.
Of the 18 suspected suicides, 41 percent had been involved in family violence proceedings.
Addressing a group at the front line of family violence, Judge Boshier said he wants New Zealand to follow Australia’s lead and have a mental health awareness scheme within the Family Court.
The new practice would mean the court could refer vulnerable people directly to mental health agencies.
Each year, family violence costs New Zealand $63 million.
Head of Women's Refuge Heather Henare says she is not convinced the proposed protocols are the way to fill the gaps in the system.
“How are we going to convince the Ministry of Health to then put in another system or layer of people,’ she says.
“Maybe it's about training the people we have on mental health assessment.”
Judge Boshier says the necessary links between the courts and mental health organisations could be put in place immediately, but it's being thwarted by a lack of open communication.
“We have this mentality here, often because of supposed privacy that we don't talk to each other,” he says.
“So we have various cases in which a number of agencies all know something but they don't tell others.”
Judge Boshier warns that every day of inaction will lead to fatal consequences.
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