Monique Faleafa

It’s an honour and a privilege to be in a role that serves Pacific communities every day at a national level. I am blessed to have opportunities to make a positive difference in the lives of Pacific people accessing mental health, addiction, disability and general health services, so that our communities can lead healthy lives and reach our fullest potential.

Developing a mainstream workforce that is responsive to the unique needs of Pacific families and enhancing the capacity and capability of our Pacific workforce are key to achieving quality frontline health and disability services for our Pacific communities.

I bring 14 years of experience working for Pacific communities. This includes working for a Pacific grass roots non-government organisation gaining insight into neuro-rehabilitation (where I did my doctoral research), working at the frontline as a registered clinical psychologist in district health boards, and gaining experience at governance levels such as the New Zealand Psychologists Board, chairing Pasifikology, and sitting on the Pacific Advisory Panel to the Auckland Council. This has all provided solid foundations for gaining an understanding into the issues that we, as Pacific people, face on a day-to-day basis.

The workplace has to be a development of the human spirit as well as production. (Anita Roddick)