A Southern District Health Board member is questioning Southland's reported high rate of suicide.
Querying the Southern Suicide Prevention Plan at this week's community and public health advisory committee, Neville Cook said he doubted Southland's rate was especially high.
The plan, which the committee approved, said Southland's suicide rate of 15.4 deaths per 100,000 people was higher than the national average, of 11.9 deaths per 100,000 people, and contributed to the South's overall rate of 13.4 deaths per 100,000 people. The statistics relate to 2003-07.
Mr Cook believed the higher rate was evidence of better reporting in Southland, and said the area's Victim Support had had funding in recent years which led to better data collection and identification of suicides.
To a suggestion that suicide statistics were based on the coroner's findings rather than Victim Support data, Mr Cook said he believed that until a few years ago, when the coronial system was reorganised, there was regional inconsistency in findings.
Some coroners had been un-willing to make a finding of suicide, while others were more "open" to that finding.
Mr Cook said it had been a shame the special funding to Victim Support was abruptly halted because the work was extremely valuable.
Committee chairman Dr Malcolm Macpherson said the potential for suicide to be wrongly classified as an accident cast doubt on international comparisons.
The plan was also approved at yesterday's full board meeting.
