Silence about suicide is a hindrance not a help in lowering the suicide rate, United Kingdom mental health nurse and academic Prof Dawn Freshwater says.
There was really strong evidence that where suicide remained a taboo subject it led to an increased incidence of successful suicides, she said.
It did not make sense that society was prepared to talk about young people's high incidence of drug and alcohol addiction, a type of self harm that in the extreme was a " long drawn out suicide", but was not prepared to acknowledge those taking "the most direct route".
The silence or "negative association" about the subject also made it very difficult for families who had a family member commit suicide.
Suicide was the second biggest killer of young men in the 15 to 19 year-old age group in the Western World, she said.
Prof Freshwater, who holds positions at both Bournemouth University and Peel Health Campus in Western Australia, was in Dunedin recently to address the national conference of the New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses.
Her work has included helping to establish a community intervention programme to prevent suicide in young men in rural Western Australia.
The programme involved finding ways for the community to help support young men, many of whom did not know who to turn to if they were in distress.
The work resulted in an increased number of referrals to mental health services - "a very positive intended consequence".
Prof Clearwater said early intervention with mental health problems meant there was more likely to be a better outcome.
Early treatment of psychological distress would mean there would be a significant reduction in the number of young people who went to prison.
Much of her work in Britain has been related to the high incidence of mental health problems in young offenders. It was estimated that 97% of the prison population in the UK had mental health problems, with suicide and self-harming attempts, and drug and alcohol addiction common.
She did not believe the situation would be much different in New Zealand.
Her research led to the introduction of mental health awareness training for prison officers across the UK.
It was designed to help them recognise signs of mental illness in prisoners and get early help for them through medication or talking therapies.
The move had not been appreciated initially by prison officers who saw their role as primarily custodial rather than caring.
There was a need for people to understand what led to behaviour in young offenders, she said .
Often young people had received poor parenting where there were no boundaries and they appreciated being in prison because it gave them structure and rules.
Self harming in prison meant they could be sent to the health centre where they would get the "caring, mothering and parenting they never got at home".
These people needed help, not to be put behind bars, she said.
Her programme for prison officers has been adopted in Canada and Australia and she was hoping to discuss it with New Zealand prison authorities.
