Research

It is getting better and better. 15 March brought it out. You read something and you see all the numbers where to ask for help. Suicide is the one where it’s been made aware of early on. The list of numbers to call for support] is getting better but only recently. The most important thing is to not feel ashamed to ask, and it’s knowing to where to reach out. It comes from yourself first and everything else follows.

I used to sit in a room with registrars new to Aotearoa. I’d just sit and talk like how we are, I’d say “Did you know about tangata whenua before you landed here?” Out of the 6 [in the room], maybe one put their hand up, another that halfway put their hand up. I’d say “you wouldn’t know that our people talk to our dead.” That blew them away. “You would know that people like yourself would call that schizophrenia.” Non-Māori don’t know, and they put us in schizophrenia. They would say “that is the best learning we’ve got since coming to Aotearoa”. Our people talk to our dead, and that’s a gift. [relates to mental health services and establishing Māori services]

What I’m asking for, is that we should be trauma responsive in NZ. In NZ, trauma is generational, it’s intergenerational. If you look at Christchurch, there has been tragedy after tragedy - earthquake, the shootings, Covid — those people will be walking on eggshells.

Work rights, and how it’s really – some of my friends have backgrounds with mental illness. The way the work system works here, it really hinders them getting involved in professional fields. The employers in particular, they just decline this person because of that situation that they have.

Yes, trying to fill out a disability application in WINZ is so hard, so ablest, because I am filling out this form for the disability that I need to get help for. How is that supposed to work? Half the evidence you have to take in with you to get services, it’s so much. I was filling out a form to get therapy because I was suicidal. The government forms – it’s terrifying – it makes your mental crisis worse. One form I filled out – it’s 25 pages! The government doesn’t make it any kind of easy to access the things we need.

I’m trying to say, “hey, we have a lot of mental health issues in NZ, we have very bad stats.” Trauma comes from the ongoing everyday racism, it comes from a child being lost one day in the mall, it causes changes in the brain, it causes changes in the body, if you can understand.

Equitable health care – there are huge barriers. Regional barriers, each DHB does things differently, lack of resources in health care. If you’re a cis-gendered woman, and your hormones mean you have too much hair, you will get funding for hair removal. But a transgender woman won’t, which is just discrimination.

If you don't get people's health under control, that's it. We have a flawed health system. I want to challenge the no fault system of which we operate in this country. Our health system does not take accountability for what's happening. Our health system needs to be questioned. The structural and human interaction that we have helps us belong.

In an ideal world, I would like all medical students and teacher college students to have lecture on Tourette’s. I think all junior doctors and teacher trainees should have lecture on Tourette’s. But teacher/colleges don’t even have papers on neurodiversity and neural disorders.

I kind of understand that structures and systems take a truckload of effort to change them. I’ve been protesting all sorts of advocacy for disability sector so 35 yrs about now. I'm tired. And change still hasn’t come. And were still about as invisible as we were about 35 years ago.

Provide respite and hospice care. My disabled chronically ill child and myself live courtesy of my husband's job. I cant claim a benefit, although I used to be main breadwinner, because he works.

Our bicultural practices are not right. Māori are still at risk. They are at the highest level for suicide, obesity. There’s a lot of work to be done. Māori colleagues need to be fully accepted further up.

In NZ, immigrants can’t get free healthcare when studying. On a website at one school, it said only citizens go to. So, if you want people to come here with good skills and knowledge, they should be treated equally, and they should implement things they tend to brag about, like human rights etc.

In the health system, I think it goes back to training, and I think it goes back to education. I understand Peter Crampton, one of the leaders of the medical school, [wanted entry requirements] so that medical school students reflect the community it serves. Then you get privileged people complaining about Māori quotas and Pacifica students. But they don’t complain about the rural quota, that’s there as well. They’re trying to train that Māori and Pacifica patients have different needs.

If we had a mainstream health system that was culturally safe, we wouldn't need Māori services and I would belong in a system that works for Māori (and hopefully other ethnic minorities). I feel I belong in enough places so don't have a sense that I need to feel I belong in more. I would rather focus my energies on learning to help others feel welcome in the spaces I move through.

If people have time to breathe and focus on themselves and taking that time doesn't affect their ability to feed and clothe themselves then they will also be able to think about others and adjust to their needs.

It's a bit of an odd one, but I think more time spent in communal activities outside of a work setting, the better. We spend soo much time working, we get tired or over it or get too busy for other things. So some sort of reduction or allocation of time during work in which we can do these activities.

From the mental health angle, including those that people forget about: dementia, bipolar, PTSD, split personality disorder. I think if you have support in a work environment then you are able to support your own wellbeing, or you are able to support whoever you’re supposed to support. Because when you are given the resources to feel good within yourself, you can help others and give back to the community.

There are some people out there that should not parents. But that’s a social issue. It gets tricky. You start getting very politically incorrect. Some people don’t deserve to have kids. One kid I know is hugely overweight, but his parents keep feeding him up with junk. They’re not bad people, just uneducated. I know some of the things I’ve just said there are wrong [politically incorrect], but when I see these kids, that’s wrong too.

People can be singled out as a poster-person - what if we introduce a mentor /buddy programme who will help the representative - like an intentional peer support group and use it widely?

I think. A 30 hour work week would help a lot [relates to mental health and wellbeing]

When I was on Council, now on the community board, it was an eye-opener to see how the corrupt processes go on. Making submissions, you do it at the end point. Wellbeing is a higher level, that’s something that fits in. People’s overall wellbeing is more than just their health. We’re talking about how I feel and [x] feels.

In health and disability, there are some good gains being made, but what it always comes down to is engagement on a human level, what matters to people and work from there. How health interactions happen is usually the GP wants to know what’s the matter with you and then I’ll fix it. Not what matters to you, then build up a treatment plan. For example, you have problem with your diabetes – doctor says, “oh, manage your blood sugar, oh, manage your exercise, oh, change your diet.” But it actually isn’t that – it turns out you don’t have enough money for kai, so you give the good kai to kids and then you eat what’s left, the sugary junk food.

If people have time to breathe and focus on themselves and taking that time doesn't affect their ability to feed and clothe themselves then they will also be able to think about others and adjust to their needs.