New Zealand Has The Highest Adolescent Suicide Rate Of All Wealthy Countries, Says New Report

New Zealand Has The Highest Adolescent Suicide Rate Of All Wealthy Countries, Says New Report:

The Building the Future: Children and the Sustainable Development Goals in Rich Countries report measured the rate of suicide in adolescents across 41 OECD and EU countries.

It found almost one in five (19.8%) children in New Zealand are living in relative income poverty, and that the nation has the sixth-highest teen birth rate (Mexico was first).

“It is important we don’t just look at our shocking youth suicide rate, and realise that the children who are having suicidal thoughts are likely the same children who are living under the poverty line and with food shortages,” UNICEF New Zealand’s national advocacy manager, Dr Prudence Stone, told BuzzFeed News.

“New Zealand is ranking poorly even as a high income nation because our leaders and successive governments have not been strategic, and we know that the first services to go when there is no increase in funding are mental health and public health services.

“Too many children are losing hope and giving up.”

H/t reader kevin a.

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