scholarly journals Mental health and the news media in Aotearoa New Zealand: Key informant perspectives

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Oliver ◽  
Liz Beddoe ◽  
Carole Adamson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
News Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Mental Health Consumer ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Key Informant

INTRODUCTION: Without personal experience or specific background knowledge of an issue, individuals exposed to news media are limited in their ability to gauge the accuracy of media content. The perception of people with mental illness as dangerous or incompetent allows for discrimination to occur, often resulting from inaccurate portrayals in the media.METHOD: A small, qualitative study was undertaken to explore key informant perspectives on the representation of mental health issues in the current Aotearoa New Zealand media context. Eight semi-structured interviews were carried out with key informants; each participant provided at least one of the following perspectives: mental health professional, mental health advocate, mental health consumer and/or media personnel.FINDINGS: The participants in this research found that news media strongly influence how the public views mental health, but believe media representation has improved in recent years. However, participants described an absence of stories illustrating successful interventions and felt that the portrayal of mental illnesses are still misrepresented and stigmatised by the media. Mental health services and mental health professionals were seen as poorly represented by the news media, which was thought to deter help-seeking and hinder trust.CONCLUSION: Public attitudes towards mental health have a significant impact on the lives of those experiencing mental distress. The news media have the ability to change public perceptions; however, this influence can be either harmful or helpful. Mental health stories need to be consistently contextualised and use inclusive language in order to a make a positive large- scale change in public attitudes.

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>

Stalking: Introduction, Definition, and Epidemiology

Stalking ◽  
2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debbie Giorgi-Guarnieri ◽  
Michael A. Norko
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
News Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Violent Behavior ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Lifetime Risk ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Forensic Psychiatric

The 1990s witnessed the emergence of stalking as a new social construct that was recognized through the development of antistalking statutes. Simultaneously, stalking received widespread attention in the popular news media and in scholarly works by mental health professionals. Considerable variation exists among the legal, clinical, and research definitions of stalking. Large-scale epidemiological studies, conducted in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States, suggest that stalking is a relatively common behavior. Women have an 8–33% lifetime risk of being the victim of stalking, depending on the definition. For men, the lifetime risk is 2–7%. Studies on the epidemiology of stalking violence give a wide range of results: 3–46% of stalkers progress to violence. Higher rates of stalking have been reported among some populations, including college students, mental health clinicians, and celebrities. Female stalkers differ from male stalkers in their motivations and target populations. Finally, children and adolescents also exhibit stalking behaviors outside of normal developmental behaviors. Behavior patterns that we now call “stalking” have been described for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Galen, Plutarch, and various physicians of the Middle Ages described these behaviors (Lloyd-Goldstein, 1998). In 1837, Esquirol differentiated erotomania and nymphomania (Esquirol, 1838/1965). Both Kraepelin (1921/1976) and de Clérambault (1921) described erotomania in the 1920s. Classic literature provides several historical instances of what appears to be stalking. It has been argued that Shakespeare’s last 25 sonnets reflect his obsessional attachment and spurned pursuit of the “dark lady,” with evidence of obscenities, threats, paranoia, and irrationality (Skoler, 1998). Mullen, Pathé, and Purcell (2000) describe evidence of behaviors typical of stalkers in the lives and written works of Italian poets Danté Alighieri (1265–1321) and Petrarch (1304–1374), and the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). Louisa May Alcott’s first novel, A Long Fatal Love Chase, written in 1866 but discovered and published in 1993, tells the story of a young woman pursued with increasing anger, resentment, and ultimately violence by the husband she left (Mullen et al., 2000). Two of the late twentieth century’s most notorious forensic psychiatric cases arose from the mental problems and violent behavior of stalkers.

scholarly journals Mental health consumer involvement in occupational therapy education in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Newton Scanlan ◽  
Alexandra Logan ◽  
Karen Arblaster ◽  
Kirsti Haracz ◽  
Ellie Fossey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Occupational Therapy ◽  
Consumer Involvement ◽  
Occupational Therapy Education ◽  
Mental Health Consumer ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Health Consumer ◽  
Therapy Education

Lesbians in New Zealand: Their Mental Health and Satisfaction with Mental Health Services

2000 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Welch ◽  
Sunny C. D. Collings ◽  
Phillippa Howden-Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Sexual Abuse ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Health Professionals ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
General Health Questionnaire ◽  
Mental Illnesses

Objectives: To describe the mental health of lesbians in New Zealand, and to document their accounts of their experience of mental health services. Method: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A postal questionnaire, the Lesbian Mental Health Survey, was distributed via lesbian newsletters to 1222 women throughout New Zealand. Mental health measures included the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), Interview Schedule for Social Interaction (ISSI), and respondents' histories of sexual abuse and psychiatric histories. Experiences of mental health services were sought. Results: The estimated response rate was 50.8%%. The respondent group were predominantly New Zealand European, highly educated, urban women between 25 and 50 years of age. Three-quarters had identified as lesbian for more than 5 years. Recent self-identification as lesbian was associated with higher GHQ score, as was being younger than 35, having a history of sexual abuse, and not living with a partner. Eighty percent of respondents had used mental health services sometime in their lives and nearly 30 percent of users had received ‘lesbian-unfriendly’ treatment at some point. One-sixth of respondents had experienced discrimination from service providers in the previous 5 years. Conclusion: While the mental health of lesbians is influenced by factors similar to those influencing women's mental health in general, because of social factors, such as stigma and isolation, lesbians may be more vulnerable to common mental illnesses. Health professionals, mental health professionals in particular, need to raise their awareness of the issues lesbians face in dealing with their sexuality, therapeutic relationships and mental health services. Increased training about sexuality for health professionals, as well as further research into areas such as stress and stigma, sexual abuse and attempted suicide among lesbian women, is recommended.

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>

Public Attitudes Toward New Prisons in New Zealand and Deficit Narratives: A Quantitative Survey

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 348-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adele N. Norris ◽  
Kalym Lipsey
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
Quantitative Survey

The imprisonment rate in New Zealand ranks seventh among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Yet the imprisonment of Indigenous people is on par with the United States, which has the world’s highest incarceration rate. Almost 70% of the prison population in New Zealand is comprised of people racialized as non-White. In 2016, the National Government proposed to spend $2.5 billion over a 5-year period to build new prisons (1,500 prison beds) to accommodate a growing prison population. This study assessed public attitudes toward the need for more prisons and the equity of treatment of individuals within the criminal justice system. Findings from a 2016 and 2017 quantitative survey of 5,000 respondents each year revealed that roughly half of the respondents believed the proposed spending for new prisons to be extremely to somewhat necessary. A large proportion of respondents also believed Māori and Pākehā, if convicted of the same crime, are treated similarly within the criminal justice system. New Zealand scholars have critiqued news media coverage of contentious sociopolitical issues, such as crime and prisons, for employing tactics that have worked to construct a morally and culturally deficit “Other” while normalizing whiteness, rendering it invisible and raceless. This article concludes that this process masks racial disparities of individuals located within the criminal justice system and preserves the ideal that prisons are a normal function of the social landscape.

The Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service Society: 20 Years' Experience in Urban Community Mental Health

1993 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 308-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Sladen-Dew ◽  
Douglas A. Bigelow ◽  
Ralph Buckley ◽  
Stephen Bornemann
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Service ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Mental Health Professionals ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Multidisciplinary Teams ◽  
Fully Integrated ◽  
Mentally Disabled ◽  
Community Agencies ◽  
Persons With Schizophrenia

Caring for people in the community with persistent and disabling mental illnesses presents a major challenge to government, planners and mental health professionals. The success with which mentally disabled people are integrated into community life says much about the society in which we live. This article describes the experience of the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service Society in offering community-based mental health services to persons with schizophrenia and other major mental disorders over the past 20 years. The key to its success lies in a decentralized, relatively non hierarchical organizational structure which allows committed and skilled multidisciplinary teams to work with patients and their families in their community. The resulting services are fully integrated within the fabric of the community and are responsive to local needs. Partnerships among professionals, patients, families and community agencies result in work that is creative, productive and effective.

scholarly journals Architecture Without Expectation: Designing a third place for mental wellbeing in the community

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kezia Fairbrother
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Mental Wellbeing ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Third Place ◽  
Therapeutic Landscapes ◽  
Spatial Design ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The Government ◽  
Maori Health

<p>In 2018, the government published the report of its inquiry into mental health and addiction in Aotearoa New Zealand, which called for a ‘paradigm shift’ in the country’s approach to mental wellbeing. This research portfolio explores the role architecture has to play in this shift, acknowledging the problematic historical associations of architecture and mental health. In doing so, the work aims to establish principles for a new architectural typology of mental health care, outside of conventional institutions. It explores contemporary approaches to wellness, and integrates research from several bodies of theoretical and evidence-based research into a new creative practice within architecture. Specifically, the research draws on theory around nonrepresentational therapeutic landscapes, third place and evidence based design. These inform creative explorations of the therapeutically affective qualities of naturally-sourced materials. The findings of this explorations are transferred to spatial design using a ‘multiplicity’ approach based on nonrepresentational theory and Māori health models, which is then applied to a specific site in Wellington, New Zealand. Finally, architectural applications for this research are proposed in the form of a community-based third place to support mental health and wellbeing.</p>

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