scholarly journals Community healthcare workers' experiences during and after COVID-19 lockdown: a qualitative study from Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleanor HOLROYD ◽  
Nicholas J. LONG ◽  
Nayantara Sheoran APPLETON ◽  
Sharyn Graham DAVIES ◽  
Antje DECKERT ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Professional Relationships ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Healthcare ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Community Midwives ◽  
Adequate Provision

Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic reached Aotearoa New Zealand, a stringent lockdown lasting seven weeks was introduced to manage community spread of the virus. This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study examining how lockdown policies impacted upon the lives of those caring for community-based patients. The study involved nationwide surveys and ethnographic interviews with 15 registered nurses (RN) employed in community settings, two community midwives, and five personal care assistants (PCAs). During the strict lockdown levels 4 and 3, RNs and PCAs in the community showed considerable courage in answering their 'call to duty' by taking on heightened care responsibilities and going 'the extra mile' to help others. They faced significant risks to personal and professional relationships when they were required to take on additional and complex responsibilities for community-based patients. Despite, and sometimes due to the hypervigilant monitoring of their personal protective equipment (PPE), the need to safeguard family and community members generated considerable stress and anxiety. Many also faced personal isolation and loneliness as a result of lockdown restrictions. Although 'care' and 'kindness' became social expectations throughout Aotearoa New Zealand during the lockdown, RNs and PCAs who were already doing care work in patient homes had to do more. This article makes five core service delivery and policy recommendations for supporting community-based nurses and PCAs in respiratory disease pandemics: acknowledging the crucial role played by community-based carers and the associated stress and anxiety endured, through championing respect and compassion; demystifying the 'heroism' or 'self-sacrifice' projected onto care workers to facilitate boundary setting; the timely provision of adequate protective equipment; improving remuneration with adequate provision for time off; and regular counselling, peer support groups, and education on work-life balance delivered by support workers in recognition of stressors arising from these complex and isolated working conditions.

scholarly journals Rainbow experiences of accessing mental health support in Aotearoa New Zealand: A community-based mixed methods study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gloria Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Mental Health Settings ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

<p>While we know that rainbow people in Aotearoa New Zealand (that is, people of diverse sexualities, genders, and sex characteristics) experience high rates of adverse mental health outcomes, we know much less about the extent to which Aotearoa’s rainbow community members are receiving the mental health support they need. To address this gap I used mixed methods and a reflexive community-based approach to extend current understandings of rainbow mental health support experiences, and to explore how the provision of mental health care can be improved for rainbow people in New Zealand.  I first conducted interviews with 34 rainbow community young adults about their experiences of accessing mental health support. My thematic analysis showed that rainbow people across New Zealand faced significant structural barriers to accessing mental health support. Participants understood mental health settings as embedded within a heteronormative and cisnormative societal context, rather than as a safe place outside this context. This, together with a widespread silence from mental health professionals around rainbow identity, meant that participants actively negotiated coming out in mental health settings. Participants shared a variety of perspectives as to whether it should be standard practice for mental health professionals to ask about rainbow identities, but agreed on a number of subtle acts that could communicate a professional or service is rainbow-friendly. Knowledge about sexuality, gender, and sex characteristic diversity, together with clinical skills of empathy, validation, and affirmation, were described as key components for the provision of effective mental health support.  I conducted a second thematic analysis of data from a subset of the initial interviews, in which 13 participants discussed their experiences of accessing gender-affirming healthcare. Participants reported a lack of funding for gender-affirming healthcare in New Zealand, and described its provision a “postcode lottery”; the care available was largely dependent on the region participants were living in. Mental health assessments for accessing gender-affirming care were often described as tests of whether participants were “really” transgender, and participants discussed the need to express their gender in a particular way in order to access the healthcare they needed.  Thematic analyses of interview data informed the development of an online survey about rainbow peoples’ experiences of accessing mental health support and gender-affirming healthcare in New Zealand (n = 1575). Survey results closely reflected interview findings, indicating that rainbow people have mixed experiences in New Zealand’s mental health settings, and that accessing gender-affirming healthcare is a lengthy and convoluted process.   Finally, interview and survey data were used to develop a resource for mental health professionals, to guide their work with rainbow clients. I sought and incorporated feedback from key stakeholders (n = 108) during resource development. I then distributed the resource to mental health professionals around New Zealand, both in print and online.  Overall, my research shows that widespread knowledge gaps compromise the ability of New Zealand’s mental health professionals to provide culturally competent support to rainbow clients. Knowledge from this thesis can be used to increase awareness of rainbow community members’ mental health support needs, and to inform mental health professionals’ training and self-reflection around sexuality, gender, and sex characteristic diversity.</p>

scholarly journals Food for People in Place: Reimagining Resilient Food Systems for Economic Recovery

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9369
Author(s):  
Kelly Dombroski ◽  
Gradon Diprose ◽  
Emma Sharp ◽  
Rebekah Graham ◽  
Louise Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Food System ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Essential Services

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated response have brought food security into sharp focus for many New Zealanders. The requirement to “shelter in place” for eight weeks nationwide, with only “essential services” operating, affected all parts of the New Zealand food system. The nationwide full lockdown highlighted existing inequities and created new challenges to food access, availability, affordability, distribution, transportation, and waste management. While Aotearoa New Zealand is a food producer, there remains uncertainty surrounding the future of local food systems, particularly as the long-term effects of the pandemic emerge. In this article we draw on interviews with food rescue groups, urban farms, community organisations, supermarket management, and local and central government staff to highlight the diverse, rapid, community-based responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings reveal shifts at both the local scale, where existing relationships and short supply chains have been leveraged quickly, and national scale, where funding has been mobilised towards a different food strategy. We use these findings to re-imagine where and how responsibility might be taken up differently to enhance resilience and care in diverse food systems in New Zealand.

scholarly journals Supervision as Cultural Partnership

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Kathie Crocket
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Culturally Appropriate ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Therapeutic Practice ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Counselling Practice ◽  
Representational Practice ◽  
Colonial Experience

The term cultural supervision has been coined as part of a strategy that implicates supervision in the support and development of culturally appropriate therapeutic practice. In Aotearoa New Zealand particular focus has been given to supervision where the client is Māori and the practitioner is a member of the dominant Pākehā culture particularly, or of other non-Māori cultures. However, while the phrase cultural supervision has entered common professional parlance, the practice has had little research attention in counselling/psychotherapy in New Zealand. Cultural supervision appears to encompass a range of understandings, and there is no clear agreement about practice implications. It is unclear what alignment there is between aspirations, regulations, and practice. This article reports on an exploratory qualitative study that investigated how supervision might work in supporting culturally appropriate counselling practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The study’s findings are presented as a multi-voiced dialogue. This arts-based representational practice enacts the uncertainties of post-colonial experience. Its intention is to make assumptions, ideas, and practices available for discussion. Its contribution is to join current dialogue about supervision and culture, and to raise further questions about how supervision and culturally appropriate practice come together. Whakarāpopotonga Kua whakakaupapahia te kīanga whakahaere tikanga-ā-iwi ki tētahi peka o tētahi rautaki hono whakahaere tikanga ki te tautoko, whakangungu haumanu tikanga-ā-iwi tika. I Aotearoa tōtika tonu te aronui atu ki ngā wā he Māori te kiritaki he Pākehā o te ahurea matua, o te hunga ehara rānei i te Māori te kaiwhakawaiwai. Heoi, ahakoa kua putaputa noa mai tēnei kīanga i waenga i ngā kōrerorero ngaio, kāre anō kia āta rangahauhia kia arotikahia rānei i roto i ngā mahi kaikōrero/kaimahi hinengaro i Aotearoa. Te āhua nei he maha ngā mātauranga e tāwharauhia ana e te mahi nei, ā, kāre he whakaarohanga mō ngā hua o te mahi. Kāre i te mārama he aha ngā here mai i ngā whāinga ki ngā here me te mahi. Ko tēnei tuhinga he pūrongo rapunga matai wheako kimi me pēhea e tika ai te whakahaere tikanga hei tautokohanga kaikōrero whakawaiwai tikanga-ā-iwi i Aotearoa. Ko ngā rangahautanga kei roto i te reo maha. Ko tōna tikanga he whakatau mahara, whakaaro, mahi whakawai hoki hai matapakihanga. Ko tāna koha ko te hono ki ngā whakawhitinga korero onamata e pā ana ki te whakahaere tikanga me te tikanga-ā-iwi, ā, ki te whakaara pātai titiro me pēhea e hono tahi ai te whakahaere tikanga me te tikanga-ā-iwi.

scholarly journals Turning The Tide on Private Profit-Focused Provision In Early Childhood Education

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Linda Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Private Profit ◽  
Democratic System

The article analyses a market-based approach to early childhood education (ECE) provision and the growth of for-profit ECE provision, evidence about ‘quality’ and accessibility, and problems occurring when a need for private profit conflicts with the best interests of families and children. The issue of for-profit provision is set within the context of international developments and solutions in Europe, UK, US and Canada. Immediate steps that might be taken for a democratic system of community-based and public early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand are pinpointed. Overall, the article offers possibilities for asserting democratic values as a way towards alternatives in Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education provision.

scholarly journals Real-time genomics to track COVID-19 post-elimination border incursions in Aotearoa New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan Douglas ◽  
Jemma L Geoghegan ◽  
James Hadfield ◽  
Remco Bouckaert ◽  
Matthew Storey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Public Health System ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Viral Transmission ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Community Outbreaks ◽  
Different Origins

There have been thirteen known COVID-19 community outbreaks in Aotearoa New Zealand since the virus was first eliminated in May 2020, two of which led to stay-at-home orders being issued by health officials. These outbreaks originated at the border; via isolating returnees, airline workers, and cargo vessels. With a public health system informed by real-time viral genomic sequencing which typically had complete genomes within 12 hours after a community-based positive COVID-19 test, every outbreak was well-contained with a total of 225 community cases, resulting in three deaths. Real-time genomics were essential for establishing links between cases when epidemiological data could not, and for identifying when concurrent outbreaks had different origins. By reconstructing the viral transmission history from genomic sequences, here we recount all thirteen community outbreaks and demonstrate how genomics played a vital role in containing them.

Preparing New Zealand's Teachers to Use Culturally Responsive Relationship-Based Pedagogies

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-33
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Ressler ◽  
James D. Ressler ◽  
Barrie Gordon
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Culturally Responsive ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Quality Teaching ◽  
Naturalistic Inquiry ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Multiple Contexts

This article addresses culturally responsive relationship-based pedagogies as a foundation to quality teaching and learning. Framed through an examination of the Masters of Teaching and Learning (MTchLrn) program in Aotearoa/New Zealand, this qualitative study was conducted using naturalistic inquiry. A study of how this program works across multiple contexts forms a basis for determining whether it could serve as a model for other institutions and countries. Results indicated the MTchLrn program, through the infrastructure of the program and triad relationships so central to the program, holds promise for effectively preparing teachers in culturally responsive and relationship-based practices.

scholarly journals Pacific meets west in addressing palliative care for Pacific populations in Aotearoa/New Zealand: a qualitative study

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunia Foliaki ◽  
Veisinia Pulu ◽  
Hayley Denison ◽  
Mark Weatherall ◽  
Jeroen Douwes
Keyword(s):  
Palliative Care ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand
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