Comments on: Queen Street march for Toran Henry

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:53:53 +0000

Dear Maria,
Today I learned for the first time about Toran in Uncensored Magazine. I have been researching ‘Teenage Depression’ as I decide whether or not to allow my 16 year old daughter to take the Prozac prescribed by a psychiatrist.
After visiting http://www.cchr.org.nz I feel empowered to stick to the path of natural healing (Omega oils etc for Hormone imbalances) and LOVE.
My heart aches for all the family and friends of lost loved ones.
“But there for the Grace of God go I”.
Have courage Maria and all those supporting you on this journey for TRUTH.
We all know that the system strives to keep itself aloof from reality and to maintain its power at all costs. But your efforts will awaken many like myself who are called upon to become conscious for the very survival of our children.
THANK YOU. Warmest regards, Ingrid

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:52:32 +0000

The research into these SSRIs is disgraceful. So much suppressed information about suicidal ideation that the govt knows about. These things are worse than useless and need to be substituted with real alternatives proven to work. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help Maria.

Jacinta I have alot of information about alternative pain remedies I can
pass on and have had good results with chronic pain sufferers. Should have some sound links soon. tom1nz@yahoo.co.nz

By: Jacinta

Jacinta — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:54:00 +0000

Hi Maria,
I am so sorry for your loss. I have closely followed the media coverage surrounding Toran’s suicide. I have a personal interest in this as my daughter Helena (aged 15 years) attempted suicide last November. She had been chronically ill with Juvenille arthritis and chronic pain. Obviously she was depressed from being in this situation. She was prescibed prozac, initially she felt ok, but after they doubled the dose she became acutely suicidal, we had to have her admitted to the adult mental health unit here in Nelson, there was no facillity for adolescents. A month or so later we found her unconscious from a massive drug overdose, she ended up being admitted to Starship for 2 weeks as she went into liver failure, we were told that she may die or need a transplant. Her journey back to recovery has been extremely difficult but she gets stronger every day, we as a family received no counselling or admission from the mental health services that there was an association with the prozac. There was no proper support for our child for her pain or her mental anguish prior to her suicide attempt. The prozac definately created the profound suicidal ideation. I am so sorry that your son did not get the care and respect that he needed and this ultimately led to his death by suicide, If there is any support or help that we can give you please let me know. I fully support a government inquiry into the shortcomings with the treatment of our kids who have mental heath issues and also the treatment of depression with SSRIs.
Kind Regards From Jacinta

By: JimBWarrior - HandsOnEqualParent

JimBWarrior - HandsOnEqualParent — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:42:45 +0000

Maria,

I have just noticed this and am hopeing your healing - What an awful thing to happen and perhaps even worse people on this site that are so sick emmotinally that than can offer only critism of your obvious love for your boy and grief -

Stay Strong in time only the more precious memories will remain - Bless you - Jim

By: melanie

melanie — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:07:56 +0000

Get over it, people die!

By: rosie

rosie — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:40:04 +0000

It’s this government that is responsible for the mental health issues in people these days resulting in more and more suicides.
If Helen was to take her eyes off Judith for just a few days,she would see how men are being so disadvantaged,including her own husband.
Look at her on the cover of Ian Wishart’s book ‘Absolute Power’
She’s not a pretty sight with her blazing eyes and her snarling mouth.
What did happen to those motherly women of yesterday who got up early each morning to make their kids lunches for school?
Or the dads who worked 40 hours plus overtime while their wives stayed at home caring for the children?

By: MurrayBacon

MurrayBacon — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:11:29 +0000

Mental Health help isn’t a sexy subject. Both National and Labour Governments have allocated additional funding to Hospital Boards, marked for mental health - often after very public human disasters. When the next disaster has come along, it has turned out that the Hospital Boards had used the additional funding in non mental health areas.

This has led to Government setting more stringent accounting standards, so that money earmarked for mental health, does in fact get used for this by the Hospital Boards. One trick was to debit administrative costs to mental health, that were previously charged to shared overheads. Then the amount of money not billed to shared overheads, was now available for maternity or obstetrics.

While mental health issues were hidden from public gaze, they didn’t seem too big.

Now that we are discussing these issues more openly, the scale of the problem is being understood. As the requirements for workers are lifted, in a more sharply competitive economy, more of the potential workforce are left unable to participate. Thus it is clearly valuable to the person and to the community, to offer quality mental healthcare treatment.

It seems that there are more women in the low level mentally ill category, but at the extreme end, there are more men than women. The former may be due to women being more willing to ask for help and the latter partly that evolution takes more gamble with men’s lives than womens, at both ends of the mental health spectrum.

Better public support for people having temporary or permanent mental problems will make a safer world for us all. This is preferable to taking advantage of people when they are down, as so often happens in familycaught, cheers Murray.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:52:31 +0000

Maria you will probably never realise how many fathers know what you are going through to a greater or lesser degree.

I agree that this unwritten rule of not discussing suicide is deeply wrong and needs to change fast. Most suicides are men not youths. This is one of the basic facts that is not discussed.

I dont think blaming mental health will help on the national level. I think we need to look at what is wrong with NZ society that so many men and boys kill themselves and so many girls do self harm. The answer to these questions have already been well researched but they are not discussed because it is politically incorrect to do so.

By: rosie

rosie — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:21:12 +0000

Dear Maria
I’m so sorry for your loss of a loved son.
I know how you’re feeling.I too have lost a child to suicide.My beautiful daughter.
You will be in my thoughts and prayers
Love Rosie

By: Brenda Hall

Brenda Hall — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:33:35 +0000

Maria

My heart goes out to you. My 27 year old husband gassed himself in our garage, where I found him, just over 2 years ago. I can totally understand the horror and trauma you are going through. I also understand how you must adore him. I still adore my husband and always will. Its not just teens but young men in general who are doing this in alarming numbers. Please feel free to get in touch if you want to talk or if theres anything I can do to help. Something has to be done about this.
Brenda Hall
Hamilton