In 2017, Dr. Steve Duffy presented at a national summit in Auckland on the Canterbury Suicide Prevention Initiative (CaSPI), and described his own Zero Suicide journey. CaSPI relies on live feedback using an app in mobile devices, running software on the Canterbury District Health Board servers and engaging both staff and patients on quality and progress in treatment. They are also able to cross-walk the outcomes to the Emergency Department attendances and deliberate self-harm attempts.
A psychiatrist with a Masters in Business Administration, Dr. Duffy traveled to the United States and Europe to interview leaders in Zero Suicide for his MBA thesis. His philosophy relies on an organized approach (with central coordination of resources, governance and research), destigmatizing and engaging suicide attempt survivors and targeted psychotherapy in the mental health space. His presentation in Auckland described the cost-effectiveness of psychotherapy to treat individuals at risk of suicide, the Number Needed to Treat (NNT) for Statins at 30, ACE inhibitors at 26 and psychotherapy at 37.
He concluded his talk with a Friedrich Nietzsche quote, “The thought of suicide is a great consolation: by means of it one gets through many a dark night.”
