Dr Maria Baker (Ngā Puhi, Te Rārawa) CEO of 'TE RAU ORA' says that a more community-based approach is needed in order to see a decrease in suicides among Māori and Pasifika.
"Contextualising suicide as a mental illness will not work ... as there are limitations in dominant medicalised western approaches to suicide prevention and to Māori," she says.
"The other issue too, of course, is going to be with mental health services- the dominant response, is psychiatric medication ... there have to be other approaches that are healing, that don't just take into account the individual's distress, but also take into account the whānau and the context in which they're coming from."
Baker's comments come after the annual provisional suicide statistics were released for 2018/2019, showing an increase in the rate of suicides.
Te Rau Ora currently has a program called Waka Hauora, which seeks to address these issues by catering specifically for the needs of Māori and Pasifika communities.
Director of the program, Tio Sewell (Ngāti Maru), believes that empowering rangatahi from a young age is key to reducing the number of Māori represented in these statistics.
"We must nurture our rangatahi Māori to have dreams, hope and a future where they are valued, connected and feel they can contribute," says Sewell.
"If we look at mental wellbeing through culture and belonging and the degree that wider society chooses to remain ignorant or antagonistic to their aspirations and the history of this country, we then understand the struggle and plight of our younger generation to remain positive and connected."
Baker is convinced that in order for improvement; there needs to be a holistic approach when implementing programs to combat these issues.
"Anything that is kaupapa Māori ... so any service, any program that is centered on Māori or comes from and is for Māori and has a Māori approach is holistic," she says.