FLO: Pasifika for Life 2015/2016

In 2013 Le Va and Māori Workforce Development provider Te Rau Matatini were confirmed by the Ministry of Health to deliver New Zealand’s Māori and Pasifika suicide prevention programme, called Waka Hourua. Within this programme, Le Va is priviledged to have co-designed and delivered New Zealand’s first national pasifika suicide prevention proramme – FLO: Pasifika for Life.

The FLO programme is a strength-based approach, guided by policy, research and input from our communities.  Given the complexity associated with reducing the risk factors that contribute to suicide and increasing protective factors,  the FLO programme takes a multi-level approach – developing tools, new and innovating training and contemporary resources to prevent suicide in communities. 

Over the past 12 months the FLO programme has completed several significant activities.  

Resources

FLO provides quality resources and information based on evidence, equipping Pasifika with the best tools and knowledge to help prevent suicide.

• Demand for FLO resources has been high with more than 13,000 hard copy resources distributed in the past 12 months.
• The FLO online Knowledge Bank provides extensive suicide-related information, with approximately 4,800 visits in the past 12 months.
• Pasifika community funded initaitives have produced video clips, help cards, posters and a postvention intervention resource. 
• Two Pasifika suicide prevention research projects, funded under the Waka Hourua Research agenda, Hibiscus Research Ltd and the Family Centre are nearing completion and will continue to inform the FLO programme.                                             

Training

FLO Talanoa was launched in October 2015 as an evidence-based suicide prevention education training programme designed to be led by the community for the community.  Since its launch in October 2015:

• 74 people have undergone the facilitator training, and 11 community workshops have been delivered to more than 320 Pasifika peoples in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Palmerston North, Whangarei, New Plymouth, Tokoroa and Hawke’s Bay. 

In February 2016, 23 Pasifika media organisations and networks in New Zealand came together with Le Va to talk about safe reporting of suicide in our communities. As a result:

• the Pasifika Media Guidelines for reporting suicide were developed by Le Va
• three workshops and more than 50 Pasifika media staff worked together to assist with implementing the guidelines.  
• A vital part of the guideline’s uptake and success has been the co-design, delivery and partnering with key Pasifika media leadership at the frontline.
• More than 500 Pasifika Media Guidelines have been requested and distributed nationally and internationally.

The B.R.A.V.E. video clip, launched in September 2015, has now been viewed more than 100,000 times across Facebook and YouTube, and is one of a number of resources utilised in the FLO programme with the aim of:

• promoting safe conversations between parents and adults alike, with young people
• providing participants with confidence, strength, information and empowerment when challenged with tough problems
• providing our communities with a sense of hope, and amplify the voice of our young people.

                                      
The Aunty Dee Online Wellbeing Tool was officially launched in April during the #GPS2016 Growing Pacific Solutions 2016 conference.  Aunty Dee provides structured problem solving in a self-reflective way for young people.

• It has received media attention (PDF, pages 3 and 4), and is being used across education and health sectors, as well as by families and communities.
• Two months after it was launch, more than 2,150 problems had been raised with Aunty Dee.

 Projects

17 largely Pasifika organisations were funded to deliver innovative and local suicide prevention initiatives in their communities under the Pasifika Suicide Prevention Community Fund. Managed through the FLO Programme, these organisations have largely been successful in working with communities to prevent suicide.

• Overall, the total number of people reached collectively through these projects is more than 300,000. For more information, check out the latest blog by Yvonne Kainuku-Walsh about the community fund initaitives.

Conferences/presentations

Le Va has had the honour of presenting the FLO: Pasifika for Life programme at events and conferences both nationally and internationally.  Two major conferences that were promoted heavily from a Pasifika suicide prevention perspective were the Growing Pasifika Solutions Conference – #GPS2016 in Auckland in April 2016 and the International Association for Suicide Prevention in Tokyo in June 2016.  Check out our previous stories about these two important events including the suicide prevention violence stream at #GPS2016,  and an overview of the abstracts from the Asia-Pacific suicide prevention from the Tokyo conference. 

Finally, we would like to acknowledge all our Pasifika who have been working tirelessly to prevent suicide in our communities for many years and the individuals and families who are willing to begin to talanoa in a safe way about preventing suicide in our communities.  Our work only hopes to build upon the efforts of those before us – to prevent suicide, and ensure a safe and resilient future for all of us. 

Malo ‘aupito