CARING FOR COMMUNITY: Gypsy Wright (left) and Ngawii Pekepo from Waipawa, who is looking to set up a similar event in Hawke's Bay.PHOTO/ STUART MUNRO 010314WCSMMARTON7
It was time to talk - really talk - out loud about suicide.
The Marton community came together at the Safe n Sound concert in Marton Park on Saturday to talk about the spate of suicides and attempted suicides in the town in recent months.
This the town's second such
public event in 18 years. A similar event in 1996 followed the suicides of four young people under the Bulls Bridge.
Nga tai O Te Awa suicide prevention officer Vince Potaka said throughout the central region there was a rising problem with suicide, particularly with middle-age men.
In Marton three men aged 19, 52 and 24 had committed suicide in the town in the past three months and a fourth man aged in his mid-30s, committed suicide in April, he said.
