Introducing The Suicide Prevention Co-ordinator
Barry Taylor
Barry has worked in suicide
prevention for 20 years at the local, national and international
levels. Barry was a pioneer in youth suicide prevention in New Zealand
leading the first national initiative on youth suicide prevention in
1988. He is known especially for his lecturing, conference
presentations and training work in mental health promotion, suicide risk
assessment and postvention, loss and grief, spirituality and
well-being. In addition to his technical expertise in the area of
suicide, Barry has extensive experience and provided consultancy on
population health strategic planning, project and programme planning,
implementation and evaluation. He is a research fellow at the Social
Psychiatry and Population Mental Health research unit at the University
of Otago's Wellington School of Medicine. He was a Winston Churchill
Fellow in 1990 and was a founding member of the New Zealand Association
for Adolescent Health.
Barry returned to New Zealand
in 2005 after 13 years working overseas. Among his many roles and jobs
he has:
- worked for the Commonwealth
Youth Programme and the World Health Organisation on youth health
and suicide prevention strategies
- sat on State and Federal
advisory groups on youth suicide in Australia.
- managed the Victorian Youth
Suicide Prevention Project
- been technical adviser to
the Queensland Government Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy
- worked in many indigenous
communities.
- co-wrote the guidelines for
suicide prevention in Australian schools
- developed numerous training
resources for capacity building in local communities.
- managed projects on suicide
prevention and mental health promotion for sons and daughters of
Vietnam Veterans and pathways of care for young people with a dual
diagnosis in Western Sydney
- developed the Wellington
Regional Suicide Postvention Response for Regional Public Health