Mental health and addiction Archives - Page 4 of 4

Laura Tongalea Nolan has a simple message for Pasifika considering study in the Mental Health and Addiction space. “Get on that scholarship train,” she says. To be more precise, Le Va’s Futures that Work scholarship and mentoring programme.

A five-time recipient of Le Va’s funding and mentoring support, Laura has experienced first-hand the number of benefits the programme provides. Today, as she continues her study towards a Master of Health Practice, Laura is living and working her dream.

“From the outset my dream was to work where I could service Pasifika people,” the Pasifika Clinical Practice Lead for Odyssey Trust says. “And when I first applied for Le Va’s Futures that Work programme, the application process really prompted me to think about what I wanted to do with my career.”

A pathway for Pasifika support

Laura came across the Futures that Work scholarship in 2014. “I was looking at doing further study, but didn’t want to take out a student loan,” she recalls. “When I found the Futures that Work scholarship, I put an application together and was successful.”

At the time of her first application, Laura reflects on being young and new to the workforce, which made completing parts of the application challenging. However, that challenge proved to be a formative experience in Laura’s career.

“The application asked ‘what am I contributing to the community and how will my studies enhance those contributions’,” Laura says. “That question really prompted me to think about what I wanted to do with my career, and the answer I gave on the first application has guided me on my pathway during my studies and in my work. I’ve stayed true to that direction.”

Pasifika presence helps with programme success

Today, in her role at Odyssey Trust, a drug and alcohol residency and community services provider, Laura develops and implements interventions and programmes for Pasifika clients. “Pacific people are over-represented in mental health and addiction-related problems,” she says. “Only about 10% of Pacific people struggling with mental health and addiction make it into treatment, and of those, only about one third are completing it.”

Laura says the more Pasifika people who work in mental health and addiction, the more success programmes will have. “We’ve got to add to the masses,” Laura says. “If there’s more of us working in mental health and addictions, we have more of a presence. We’re more visible. If families can see we’re there, they’re more likely to come through our door.

“Being able to practise as a Pacific clinician or practitioner leads to better outcomes for Pacific clients. It’s the single greatest predictor for a successful outcome.”

Contributing to mental health and addiction support

Le Va’s Futures that Work programme is helping to build the Pasifika addiction workforce and Laura says there’s a real need for it. “There is no better way to engage with Pacific people than being able to identify as Pasifika,” says Laura. “We’re natural engagers and in mental health and addiction, success lies in being able to engage with people.”

Laura encourages others with a discipline in the health sector, such as nursing or social work, to consider further study in the area of mental health and addiction. It’s such a rewarding and fulfilling area of work.”

And when it comes to applying for the Futures that Work programme, Laura’s advice is to keep it simple. “What are you doing within your own family? What are you doing to contribute to the wellbeing of your church group?”

“You’ll soon realise you do a lot. We just don’t tend to call it volunteering because it comes naturally to us and we get a lot out of it,” she says. “That’s why Pasifika are so good at working in the mental health and addiction space. So, jump on that scholarship train and go for it. Our people need you to take a seat at the table.”

Applications for the 2022 Le Va Futures that Work scholarship and mentoring programme are now open. Apply at https://www.leva.co.nz/training-education/scholarships/

It is an honour to introduce the PAHANZ tri-chairs, all of them working on our frontline services in our Pasifika communities, and all having a passion for making better and more positive experiences for our Pasifika families and communities accessing and moving through our health systems.

Alexis Cameron (NZRP)

Alexis hails from Ngāti Porou on her dad’s side and Alafua in Western Samoa on her mums. A physiotherapist by profession, Alexis has been employed at Auckland DHB since 2005 working in various roles across Allied Health Services and Human Resources. Currently her role is centred on Māori workforce development and building whole workforce capability to dismantle racism, eliminate inequities and building culturally safe practice.
Alexis is passionate about social justice particularly within the health and education sectors and seeks opportunities to improve processes and systems not conducive with equitable health and educational outcomes for our Māori and Pasifika communities.

“PAHANZ provides a great opportunity to connect into all things Pacific Allied Health. PAHANZ is committed to achieving Pacific Health Equity and Pacific Allied Health workforce development. Our committee continues to further develop and iterate how we do things for better effectiveness and efficiency, and we welcome and encourage Pacific Allied Health Practitioners to join us.”

Eti Televave

Born and raised in Otara, South Auckland. Both of my parents were born and raised in Samoa – villages of Nofoali’i and Vailu’utai on the main island of Upolu. I studied at the University of Otago, class of 2008. My whole Physiotherapy career has been at Middlemore Hospital, Counties Manukau DHB – spending my first 3 years as a rotational physiotherapist with different teams and areas of the hospital, before becoming a senior/experienced physiotherapist in Orthopaedics, working also in the emergency department, HDU and ICU. My main area of interest for physiotherapy practice is in acute care. I also hold a BHSc from the University of Auckland as well as three postgraduate certificates: Mental health development, health professional education, and management.

I will be pursuing a Masters in Indigenous leadership in the near future. I have been the clinical centre leader for Counties Manukau DHB since 2016, working as a member of the people and professional development team to also provide support to allied health new graduates, welcome new staff to the organisation, and provide education and training to DHB employees. My main area of interest in this role is in working towards achieving health equity.

Outside of work most of my time is spent with my wife, immediate and extended family, playing or watching sports usually cricket, rugby league, or rugby union.

Fred Fata

Soifua manuia maua ma le lagi e ma. My name is Fred Fata and I’m a Samoan, first generation born and raised in New Zealand (Glen Innes, Auckland) from a devout Catholic family of migrant parents who relocated here from the villages of Sa’asa’ai and Safata. I live in Henderson with my wife, and our two-year-old son, and have been a proud Westie now for the past 16 years. I have been a social worker for the same amount of time and my background in social work was with Oranga Tamariki, formerly Child Youth and Family.

I moved to the ADHB in 2010 to join Pacific community mental health (Lotofale) and have been here since, in 2017 I left for the WDHB to work a year as a forensic inpatient social worker in a secure unit at the Mason Clinic, and then another year in the forensic prison team at the Auckland Regional Women’s Corrections Facility. As soon as our son was born in 2019, I returned to Lotofale, as well as working last year (part time) in the Family Centre at Odyssey House, drug & alcohol residential rehabilitation programme.

I joined the PAHANZ committee when I started back at Lotofale and have been so privileged to be a part of such an endearing support group of Pasifika brothers and sisters from diverse fields in health, who I genuinely regard as friends now. I know the safety and affirmation I receive from the PAHANZ environment is uniquely, and naturally Pasifika. I’m excited to see our potential realised so that the underpinning culture of our association can be experienced by as many other likeminded Pasifika in allied health throughout Aotearoa New Zealand as possible.

These three make up the co-chairs of PAHANZ alongside a group of PAHANZ governance committee. If there are any queries and questions feel free to email to admin@leva.co.nz, please do place in the subject line PAHANZ. This will ensure it goes straight to the appropriate people to connect with you.

Manuia

PAHANZ

O le ala i le pule o le tautua – the pathway to leadership is through service

Dr Ashley Bloomfield was on the lineup at Le Va’s Le Tautua Leadership Programme last week, supporting Pasifika leaders to develop their unique leadership perspectives and enhance their management skills. Sharing his insights with the cohort of 16 participants, Director General of Health Dr Bloomfield said: “People will trust us if we lead with authenticity, kindness, humility and compassion”.

Building a robust Pacific health workforce can have a positive impact on Pacific health outcomes, according to Le Va chief executive Denise Kingi-U’lu’ave. But to do this, leadership is required. “Our intention is to grow champions for Pasifika workforce development, improve models of service delivery and enhance access rates to services for Pasifika communities,” she explained.

Programme participants also heard from Karen Orsborn, chief executive of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, who encouraged them to take every opportunity that will come their way and to be diverse in their networks.

The programme paid respect to Pasifika health leaders past, present and future. The speaker lineup also included Josiah Tualamali’I, Andre Afamasaga, Monique Faleafa, Rachel Karalus, Epenesa Olo-Whaanga, Shana Malio and Hon. Aupito William Sio.

The culturally-centred Le Tautua programme focused on the contemporary execution of traditional values and in clinical, cultural, and community contexts. Running over three workshops, it concentrated on six intended outcomes:

• strengthening authenticity as Pasifika leaders
• increasing cultural knowledge relevant to leadership and management
• improving strategies for self-awareness, self-care and resilience
• strengthening positive relationships required for leadership
• enhancing purpose and career pathways
• increasing awareness of leading with compassion, wisdom and empathy.

Le Tautua has continued for 13 years with over 100 Pasifika Alumni, and is run by Le Va. For more information about Le Va, visit www.leva.co.nz.

Note: Le Tautua literally means ‘the service’, deriving from a famous Samoan proverb: ‘O le ala i le pule, o le tautua’. The pathway to authority is through service. The concept of Tautua includes the notion that: in order to lead, one must first serve. This is the characteristic of not just Samoan but many Pacific leadership styles, where it is not necessarily about leading from the front but about the paradox of status through service.

O le ala i le pule o le tautua – the pathway to leadership is through service

The Le Va Futures that Work Awards are an investment, not only in each individual, but also in the future of our country, Aotearoa New Zealand.

2021 marks the 13th year the Ministry of Health, through Le Va, has funded and supported the development of our Pasifika mental health and addiction workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand. To-date we have provided 765 awards to 583 of our Pasifika people.

When we first started out with Futures that Work we awarded only 30 recipients. 2021 we are honoured to award 133 recipients. For a minority people in Aotearoa that is a huge achievement for our Pasifika mental health and addiction workforce. We know that our people still have a way to go with improving our health outcomes. However, we know having Pasifika in our mental health and addiction people in the services as nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, clinical psychologists and doctors makes a big difference.

These awards also recognise that each recipient has the potential to feature among the best and to be leaders in the mental health and addiction sector. New Zealand and Pasifika communities need high calibre professionals working in the mental health and addiction sectors. Here at Le Va we believe that our families, communities and New Zealand deserve nothing less than the best. The 2021 recipients represent our journey, as a people, towards better outcomes in the mental health and addictions sector.

We believe that the acknowledgement of Pacific cultures plays an important part in addressing health issues for Pasifika. It is good to see that Pasifika cultural aspects are being incorporated more into health services. This approach is reflected in the Awards Pacific programme, which supports each recipient during their studies.

It is always an honour for Le Va to address a gathering of Pasifika from our many different cultures that are achieving in their field of endeavour. Our hope of the Futures that Work awards are to celebrate and treat our recipients as the heroes they are.
We also want to acknowledge this year’s award winners for their commitment in answering the call to serve their communities and to help ease the health burdens facing Pasifika in Aotearoa New Zealand. Just as important we must congratulate the Ministry of Health for investing in Pasifika and for entrusting Le Va with this important workforce development work.

Congratulations to the recipients of the Le Va Rebuilding Wellbeing Support Fund. The goal of the Fund is to support existing Pacific Mental Health and Addiction services to deliver community-based Covid-19 psychological response initiatives which ease Covid-19 related psychological, social and physical difficulties for Pasifika.

The recipients are:

Canterbury Fiji Community Incorporated
Christian Mission Fellowship International South Island Trust
Downie Stewart Foundation (Moana House)
Fungataua Educational & Cultural Trust (FECT)
KahoaTauleva Christchurch Trust
Kaute Pasifika
Mangere East Samoan Catholic Community
Mapu Maia
Samoa Society Timaru Incorporated
South Waikato Pacific Islands Community Services Trust
Tangata Atumotu Trust

The satellite seminars were born out of feedback to Le Va in 2016, where people mentioned that they would love to see local/regional seminars as opposed to one large conference. The focus of the GPS seminars was Growing Pasifika Solutions for what the Pasifika mental health and addiction workforce would look like for the next 12-18 months, especially in light of Kia Kaha, Kia Māia, Kia Ora Aotearoa – Psychosocial and mental health wellbeing plan (revised edition December 2020). The purpose was:

To undertake a snapshot of current Pasifika MHA services
To determine if we have the capacity and capability to effectively meet the current demand and clinical presentations
To establish what we need to ensure Pasifika are receiving the highest standard of care to meet their cultural and clinical needs.

The Ministry of Health has invested a significant amount of funding in the primary care sector. GPS wanted to ‘unpack’ what that Pasifika workforce should look like and the range of skills required to deliver the right responses to the mental wellbeing of our Pasifika communities. The talanoa captured from GPS satellites can be summarised in the following:

There is ongoing demand and pressure on our mental health and addiction specialist services
The unmet demand in specialist MHA services by default is being carried by Primary care services
Our Pasifika workforce, although small, delivers above and beyond their contractual parameters
We should look at focusing on upskilling our biggest workforce non-regulatory/unregistered community workers
We should include training/upskilling our largest Pasifika resource families/communities eg suicide prevention training, some sort of brief intervention
The need for a national accessible list/calendar of Pasifika services and training
The desire to work collaboratively to respond to the psychosocial needs of our Pasifika families and communities, however, we need a lead or mandate to formalise this

GPS was honoured and privileged to hear the regional voices with a wide range of representatives from Health Improvement Practitioners (HIPs) to CEs and Consultant Psychiatrists. It was humbling to hear of the work our Pasifika workforce deliver with little or no funding but driven with the values of alofa, reciprocity and tautua to our Pasifika families and communities. The GPS team has collated all the talanoa contributions and will draft a summary report for distribution.

A special acknowledgement needs to go to all the participants that attended the GPs satellite sessions and those that contacted Le Va when they were unable to attend in person. Le Va humbly thanks you all for the gift of your valuable time. It was well spent in the company of many wonderful Pasifika and non-Pasifika people.

As more parts of life become heavily reliant on digital forms of communication, access to reliable and accurate information is crucial.

For Le Va CEO Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave, tackling the digital divide is close to the NGO’s heart of leaving no-one behind and helping Pasifika families and communities unleash their full potential.

She said many Pasifika do not have access to the internet, data or smartphones. And it’s not just the elderly.

“During our first Covid-19 lockdown and changing alert levels, there was heightened anxiety, worry and fear gnawing at our people. That was exacerbated by the barriers we face in accessing up-to-date official information on what was happening, how to stay safe and where to get help.”

Gaps in digital access

With funding from the Ministry of Health, Le Va is collaborating with Pasifika community services to address the gaps to access, affordability and digital literacy.

In their dialogue with the community and local services, many who did have devices could not afford data or were on a plan that could not meet the needs of the family, particularly for education.

“The scale of the problem is staggering,” says Denise. “People found themselves shut in their homes, socially isolated and not knowing what was happening in the outside world.”

Collaborating with SWPICST

In partnership with South Waikato Pacific Islands Community Services Trust, Le Va’s Digital Inclusion programme was piloted at Tokoroa’s local library in December. Smartphones and tablets were provided to members of the community identified to be in need, and customised 10-week workshops helped those who had never used a device set up and go digital.

The results have been promising in addressing not just the digital but also the intergenerational divide.

“When I was asked to be part of the programme so that I can connect with our people, not just in Tokoroa, but right around the country, I was so happy!” says an elderly gentleman. “Pasifika culture is embedded in connectedness and community. We understand that many things can drive generations apart, but technology doesn’t have to be one of them,” Denise says.

What’s next?

Due to the overwhelming success of the programme, it is now being rolled out nationwide to rural areas with Pasifika communities.

The delivery of Le Va’s national Engaging Pasifika Cultural Competency programme commenced in 2009.

To date, over 6 400 health workers have completed the programme, 900 of which were delivered in 2019-2020 alone. This year during COVID lockdown level 4 restrictions, EPLive Online Webinar was launched where 176 health workers completed the programme.

The New Zealand Health profile shows that Pasifika is generally featured disproportionately compared to the rest of the nation. Developing a diverse health workforce that reflects the regional population served is one of many ways to address this, however, this takes time. Supporting mainstream workers and services to enhance their cultural responsiveness is another way and is recognised as an essential means to reduce ethnic disparities in access, quality and outcomes for health and disability services. Research commissioned by the Ministry of Health on how to best meet the needs of Pasifika young people with disabilities identified cultural competency of workers and services as part of the solution in providing a better quality of care for the young person and their family.

Engaging Pasifika 2019-2020 infographic

Le Va’s Futures That Work scholarships has funded 632 Pasifika students with their tertiary studies.

The purpose of the Futures That Work Scholarships is to increase the capacity and capability of the Pasifika mental health and addiction workforce through supported upskilling, to successful and timely completion rates of qualifications, accompanied by a mentoring component.

The Futures That Work Scholarship is made up of three phases:
• Get your fees paid – up to 100 per cent of health course fees are paid to the recipient’s tertiary provider and/or contributed to their student loan.
• Get your study sorted – pastoral care, cultural support, educational support, spiritual and peer support are offered.
• Get your dream job – career planning, and connection with employers is offered.

Le Va recognises that it is more than just giving out study scholarships, but more about supporting recipients to successfully complete and do well in their studies, but also providing mentoring support, and advice on how to get the right job that, in turn, will benefit our Pasifika communities. To celebrate the success of our recipients, Le Va hosts an annual Futures That Work scholarship awards dinner. This is an opportunity to highlight the success of our award Pasifika recipients alongside their families and supports from within the community. For our 2020 recipients, Le Va is working toward viable options to host this event once again, ensuring our families and communities remain safe during COVID-19. Congratulations to all our award recipients and the contribution you all make, enabling our Pasifika communities to flourish.