WARNING: Indigenous people are advised that this story contains images of a deceased person.
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The suicide of Stockton's Kahi Simon will be raised in NSW Parliament on Thursday night, amid calls for the Minns government to significantly boost mental health funding.
The Newcastle Herald reported on Tuesday that Kahi, 20, took his own life in October last year.
His mum Kelly Kay, of Merewether, will campaign for 24-7 safe havens to help people in crisis.
Ms Kay said her son needed this when he came out of a 10-day stint in a mental health unit after a failed suicide attempt.
NSW MP Jeremy Buckingham, who lost his son Eden to suicide at age 23 in 2022, backed Ms Kay's push for safe havens.
Mr Buckingham cited the Black Dog Institute's recommendation for the government to "expand the Safe Haven program to be open in times of heightened need".
Newcastle's Safe Haven is open only three days a week for five hours a day.
The institute is pushing for "additional safe havens in high-need rural, regional and remote areas".
Ms Kay said safe havens could be community-based "without the criteria like the hospitals".
"People in crisis need a place they can drop in when they feel like it.
"There's nothing for people who have just been discharged from hospital and are still in the critical stage.
"They don't leave hospital and then they're good. That's where funding needs to be looked at because there is nothing for that."
Mr Buckingham was due to raise Kahi's case in parliament on Thursday night.
"NSW has invested the least per capita on mental health services, over the past three years, compared to all states and territories in Australia," he said.
Mr Buckingham told the Herald that "suicide is killing more young people than anything else".
He added that there were "options to raise revenue responsibly" to tackle the mental health crisis.
He said the Minns government could use money raised from "the point of consumption tax on online gambling", which was introduced five years ago.
Mr Buckingham, of the Legalise Cannabis Party, has raised this with Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson.
He said a big funding boost would ensure that people who were suffering "can access trained professionals and mental health services that might just save their lives".
Kahi's step mum Katrina Mason aimed to organise a think tank to devise innovative ways to tackle the mental health crisis.
New projects such as "healing camps" that help men connect to nature could "work in parallel to existing services".
"There's no point reinventing the wheel," Miss Mason said.
"But men are struggling. We need to consider how we can raise boys better."
She called for an "open conversation" on the issue.
When Kahi's story went viral this week, it attracted many "insightful and articulate" comments.
"He would want us to create something for other people that he needed," she said.
The institute launched its "Fully Fund Mental Health in NSW" campaign on Monday.
It said ongoing funding for mental health services could come from "a mental health levy, similar to that in Victoria and Queensland".
- Support is available for those who may be distressed. Phone Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800; beyondblue 1300 224 636; 1800-RESPECT 1800 737 732.
