Published by: BBC
Date: 31st August, 2018
Author: Poorna Bell
Poorna Bell is a freelance journalist. Three years ago, her husband took his own life. Since then, she has been studying the ways that different communities deal - and don't deal - with the issues of mental health and suicide.
Three years ago, my husband, Rob, died by suicide. He was staying in New Zealand with family at the time. It was heartbreaking, and the ramifications of his death are still felt today.
I belong to the British South Asian community and, after Rob’s death, I started looking into suicide rates and noticed similarities between my community and the indigenous Maori population of New Zealand.
As a 39-year-old white male New Zealander, Rob belonged to a gender and age group at a high risk of suicide. However, the Maori population were actually twice as likely to kill themselves.
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