scholarly journals Commentary on ‘Cultural Diversity Across the Pacific’: Samoan Cultural Constructs of Emotion, New Zealand-Born Samoan Youth Suicidal Behaviours, and Culturally Competent Human Services

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jemaima Tiatia

A recent special section on cultural diversity across the Pacific, in this journal, highlighted the need for greater alignment between human services and cultural diversity in the region. Alignment entails detailing a local context. Samoan cultural constructs of emotion, particularly anger and shame, may precede suicidal behaviours among New Zealand-born (NZ-born) Samoan youth. These behaviours can stem from perceived ruptures in family unity, as youth partly identify with majority norms. A barrier to integration faced by acculturating youth is that the young person either lives with the shame of their offence, or avoids it by taking their life. It seems Samoan cultural constructs of emotion must be considered in effective service delivery for this population. Consistent with the articles in the special section, suicide prevention should focus on developing culturally competent tools tailored for NZ-born Samoan youth, so they may communicate their feelings without fear of disrupting cultural prescriptions and expectations, as well as functioning successfully in both the Samoan and Western worlds. Although the point is discussed in relation to one special population in the Pacific region, it is consistent with an emergent theme in the special section and subsequent commentaries: the need to integrate and acculturate human services.

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. J. Gill

In December 1884 Charles Francis Adams (1857–1893) left Illinois, USA, by train for San Francisco and crossed the Pacific by ship to work as taxidermist at Auckland Museum, New Zealand, until February 1887. He then went to Borneo via several New Zealand ports, Melbourne and Batavia (Jakarta). This paper concerns a diary by Adams that gives a daily account of his trip to Auckland and the first six months of his employment (from January to July 1885). In this period Adams set up a workshop and diligently prepared specimens (at least 124 birds, fish, reptiles and marine invertebrates). The diary continues with three reports of trips Adams made from Auckland to Cuvier Island (November 1886), Karewa Island (December 1886) and White Island (date not stated), which are important early descriptive accounts of these small offshore islands. Events after leaving Auckland are covered discontinuously and the diary ends with part of the ship's passage through the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), apparently in April 1887. Adams's diary is important in giving a detailed account of a taxidermist's working life, and in helping to document the early years of Auckland Museum's occupation of the Princes Street building.


2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 89-95
Author(s):  
Vili Nosa ◽  
Kotalo Leau ◽  
Natalie Walker

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pacific people in New Zealand have one of the highest rates of smoking.  Cytisine is a plant-based alkaloid that has proven efficacy, effectiveness and safety compared to a placebo and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) for smoking cessation.  Cytisine, like varenicline, is a partial agonist of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, and blocks the rewarding effects of nicotine. Cytisine is naturally found in some plants in the Pacific region, and so may appeal to Pacific smokers wanting to quit. This paper investigates the acceptability of cytisine as a smoking cessation product for Pacific smokers in New Zealand, using a qualitative study design. Methods: In December 2015, advertisements and snowball sampling was used to recruit four Pacific smokers and three Pacific smoking cessation specialists in Auckland, New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews where undertaken, whereby participants were asked about motivations to quit and their views on smoking cessation products, including cytisine (which is currently unavailable in New Zealand). Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim, with thematic analysis conducted manually. Findings: Pacific smokers reported wanting to quit for loved ones and family, but did not find currently available smoking cessation products effective. Almost all participants had not previously heard of cytisine, but many of the Pacific smokers were keen to try it. Participants identified with cytisine on a cultural basis (given its natural status), but noted that their use would be determined by the efficacy of the medicine, its cost, side-effects, and accessibility. They were particularly interested in cytisine being made available in liquid form, which could be added to a “smoothie” or drunk as a “traditional tea”.  Participants thought cytisine should be promoted in a culturally-appropriate way, with packaging and advertising designed to appeal to Pacific smokers. Conclusions: Cytisine is more acceptable to Pacific smokers than other smoking cessation products, because of their cultural practices of traditional medicine and the natural product status of cytisine.


2020 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher C Tisdell ◽  
Zlatko Jovanoski ◽  
William Guo ◽  
Judith Bunder

  EMAC 2019 UNSW Canberra, Australia 26th Nov–29th Nov 2019 This Special Section of the ANZIAM Journal (Electronic Supplement) contains the refereed papers from the 14th Engineering Mathematics and Applications Conference (EMAC2019), which was held at the UNSW Canberra, Australia from 26th November to 29th November 2019. EMAC is held under the auspices of the Engineering Mathematics Group (EMG), which is a special interest group of the Australian and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics division of the Australian Mathematics Society. This conference provides a forum for researchers interested in the development and use of mathematical methods in engineering and applied mathematics, and aims to foster interactions between mathematicians and engineers, from both academia and industry. A further theme of the conference is the mathematical education of applied mathematicians and engineers. The event attracted participants from around the globe, including: New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, Japan and Australia. The invited speakers at the 2019 meeting crossed the spectrum of specialities in engineering, mathematics, education and industry. They were: Alexander Kalloniatis (Defence Science and Technology Group), Robert K. Niven (UNSW Canberra), Katherine Seaton (La Trobe University) and Antoinette Tordesillas (University of Melbourne). All of the articles included in the EMAC 2019 Proceedings have been critically peer reviewed to the usual standards of the ANZIAM Journal. EMAC 2019 Organising Committee The conference organising committee were Fiona Richmond, Zlatko Jovanoski (Director), Leesa Sidhu, Duncan Sutherland, Fangbao Tian, Isaac Towers, Timothy Trudgian and Simon Watt. The invited speakers were chosen by a committee of experts including Alys Clark, Jennifer Flegg, Bronwyn Hajek (EMG Chair), Zlatko Jovanoski, Dann Mallet, Robert Niven, Brandon Pincombe, Melanie Roberts (Chair) and Harvinder Sidhu.


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Fullard ◽  
Richard Brown ◽  
Anthony John Roberts

This Special Section of the ANZIAM Journal (Electronic Supplement) contains the refereed papers from the 2017 Mathematics for Industry NZ Study Group (MINZ 2017) held at Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand from 26--30 June, 2017. The MINZ is a special interest meeting of ANZIAM, the Australia and New Zealand Industrial and Applied Mathematics division of the Australian Mathematics Society. MINZ was formed to provide a national entity to host workshops where companies pitch their problems to New Zealand’s mathematical scientists. They then work collaboratively to generate practical solutions through modelling, statistical analysis or computation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amio Matenga-Ikihele ◽  
Judith McCool ◽  
Rosie Dobson ◽  
Fuafiva Fa’alau ◽  
Robyn Whittaker

Abstract Background Pacific people living in New Zealand, Australia, United States, and the Pacific region continue to experience a disproportionately high burden of long-term conditions, making culturally contextualised behaviour change interventions a priority. The primary aim of this study was to describe the characteristics of behaviour change interventions designed to improve health and effect health behaviour change among Pacific people. Methods Electronic searches were carried out on OVID Medline, PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase and SCOPUS databases (initial search January 2019 and updated in January 2020) for studies describing an intervention designed to change health behaviour(s) among Pacific people. Titles and abstracts of 5699 papers were screened; 201 papers were then independently assessed. A review of full text was carried out by three of the authors resulting in 208 being included in the final review. Twenty-seven studies were included, published in six countries between 1996 and 2020. Results Important characteristics in the interventions included meaningful partnerships with Pacific communities using community-based participatory research and ensuring interventions were culturally anchored and centred on collectivism using family or social support. Most interventions used social cognitive theory, followed by popular behaviour change techniques instruction on how to perform a behaviour and social support (unspecified). Negotiating the spaces between Eurocentric behaviour change constructs and Pacific worldviews was simplified using Pacific facilitators and talanoa. This relational approach provided an essential link between academia and Pacific communities. Conclusions This systematic search and narrative synthesis provides new and important insights into potential elements and components when designing behaviour change interventions for Pacific people. The paucity of literature available outside of the United States highlights further research is required to reflect Pacific communities living in New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific region. Future research needs to invest in building research capacity within Pacific communities, centering self-determining research agendas and findings to be led and owned by Pacific communities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Newton-Howes ◽  
M. K. Savage ◽  
R. Arnold ◽  
T. Hasegawa ◽  
V. Staggs ◽  
...  

Abstract Aims The use of mechanical restraint is a challenging area for psychiatry. Although mechanical restraint remains accepted as standard practice in some regions, there are ethical, legal and medical reasons to minimise or abolish its use. These concerns have intensified following the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Despite national policies to reduce use, the reporting of mechanical restraint has been poor, hampering a reasonable understanding of the epidemiology of restraint. This paper aims to develop a consistent measure of mechanical restraint and compare the measure within and across countries in the Pacific Rim. Methods We used the publicly available data from four Pacific Rim countries (Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States) to compare and contrast the reported rates of mechanical restraint. Summary measures were computed so as to enable international comparisons. Variation within each jurisdiction was also analysed. Results International rates of mechanical restraint in 2017 varied from 0.03 (New Zealand) to 98.9 (Japan) restraint events per million population per day, a variation greater than 3000-fold. Restraint in Australia (0.17 events per million) and the United States (0.37 events per million) fell between these two extremes. Variation as measured by restraint events per 1000 bed-days was less extreme but still substantial. Within all four countries there was also significant variation in restraint across districts. Variation across time did not show a steady reduction in restraint in any country during the period for which data were available (starting from 2003 at the earliest). Conclusions Policies to reduce or abolish mechanical restraint do not appear to be effecting change. It is improbable that the variation in restraint within the four examined Pacific Rim countries is accountable for by psychopathology. Greater efforts at reporting, monitoring and carrying out interventions to achieve the stated aim of reducing restraint are urgently needed.


2021 ◽  
pp. 102831532110162
Author(s):  
Svetlana Kostrykina

The article investigates the concept of internationalization in higher education for society (IHES) and discusses the role of social license to internationalize, its contextual variations, and implications for internationalization practices in New Zealand and Indonesia. The notion of social license to operate is common in the extraction and some service industries; however, the concept of social license to internationalize constitutes an innovative direction for research concerned with IHES and the global international education industry. Social license to internationalize emerged as a pivotal feature of internationalization practices in New Zealand and Indonesia. It reflected the public recognition of IHES, manifested in the cultural and social value of internationalization. The construction of social license to internationalize presented itself as a strategic priority for the governments and higher education institutions (HEIs) in both research settings. The conceptual underpinnings of social license to internationalize, and hence the means of constructing the latter varied depending on the local context, but they served a common purpose of reification of internationalization practices. The study of social license to internationalize contributes to a broader discussion on IHES and sheds lights on the mechanisms of building meaningful and mutually beneficial connections between the stakeholders of the global international education industry and the wider public.


2021 ◽  
pp. 000486742110314
Author(s):  
Tracy Haitana ◽  
Suzanne Pitama ◽  
Donna Cormack ◽  
Mau Te Rangimarie Clark ◽  
Cameron Lacey

Objective: Research designed to increase knowledge about Māori with bipolar disorder is required to understand how health services support wellbeing and respond to identified levels of community need. This paper synthesises the expert critique of Māori patients with bipolar disorder and their whānau regarding the nuances of cultural competence and safety in clinical encounters with the health system. Methods: A qualitative Kaupapa Māori Research methodology was used. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were completed with Māori patients with bipolar disorder and members of their whānau. Structural, descriptive and pattern coding was completed using an adapted cultural competence framework to organise and analyse the data. Results: Three themes were evident from participants’ critique of clinical components of the health system. Theme 1 established that the efficacy of clinical care for bipolar disorder was dependent on Māori patients and whānau having clear pathways through care, and being able to access timely, consistent care from clinically and culturally competent staff. Theme 2 identified the influence of clinical culture in bipolar disorder services, embedded into care settings, expressed by staff, affecting the safety of clinical care for Māori. Theme 3 focused on the need for bipolar disorder services to prioritise clinical work with whānau, equip staff with skills to facilitate engagement and tailor care with resources to enhance whānau as well as patient wellbeing. Conclusion: The standard of clinical care for Māori with bipolar disorder in New Zealand does not align with practice guidelines, Māori models of health or clinical frameworks designed to inform treatment and address systemic barriers to equity. Research also needs to explore the role of structural and organisational features of the health system on Māori patient and whānau experiences of care.


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