Volunteer!

I'm a bit late in mentioning this, but this week is Volunteer Week in New Zealand.

New Zealand is a leading nation in contribution made by volunteers. A 2008 study of the New Zealand non-profit sector estimated that volunteers make up 67% of the non-profit workforce. This is equal to 133,799 paid positions, a higher proportion than in any of the other forty world countries participating in the research project on volunteering.

Volunteer rates between different ethnic groups in the country don't differ greatly:

34.8% of Pacific people
34.5% of Pakeha
34% non NZ-born Europeans
33.4% Asians
33.2% Maori.

More women volunteer than men, but in the retirement age groups, men do more unpaid work outside the home than women.

Most volunteers are in the 30-49 age group but young people are active as volunteers. The average young person aged between 12 and 24 does over 708 hours of unpaid work outside the home a year, with young Maori giving significantly more of their time in unpaid roles than other young people.

Volunteers keep people safe by being unpaid fire fighters, St John ambulance officers, Red Cross volunteers, community patrollers, surf lifesavers, coastguards and search and rescue volunteers.

Over 820,000 people do volunteer work in sports compared to 41,000 who get paid.

These are just a few stats from Volunteering New Zealand and Office for Community and Voluntary Sector.

Lifeline to potential suicides

Carolyn Thomas writes in the Western Leader

Lifeline Aotearoa cultural adviser George Hill thinks it's time to do something about suicide rates among young Maori. So the kaumatua from South Head's Haranui Marae is working alongside clinical director Dr Stephen Edwards to trial a community-based suicide prevention course.

A marae setting, cultural protocol and detailed introductions are among changes to a Canadian programme which is already taught in communities world-wide. The Applied Suicide Intermediate Skills Training or ASIST course teaches the basics of recognising signs of someone at risk of suicide and making the right response.

"It's almost like CPR," Mr Hill says. "It's about keeping that person alive until there is more comprehensive help." Dr Edwards says young Maori men are over-represented in the suicide statistics. "New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates in the world compared to other OECD countries." [Read the rest of the article here.]

The YSPP site notes this about warning signs relating to suicide:

Most suicidal young people don’t really want to die; they just want their pain to end. About 80% of the time, people who kill themselves have given definite signals or talked about suicide. The key to prevention is to know these signs and what to do to help.

Watch for these signs. They may indicate someone is thinking about suicide. The more signs you see, the greater the risk.

• A previous suicide attempt
• Current talk of suicide or making a plan
• Strong wish to die or a preoccupation with death
• Giving away prized possessions
• Signs of depression, such as moodiness, hopelessness, withdrawal
• Increased alcohol and/or other drug use
• Hinting at not being around in the future or saying good-bye

These warning signs are especially noteworthy in light of:

• a recent death or suicide of a friend or family member
• a recent break-up with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or conflict with parents
• news reports of other suicides by young people in the same school or community

Other key risk factors include:

• Readily accessible firearms
• Impulsiveness and taking unnecessary risks
• Lack of connection to family and friends (no one to talk to)

[Mike Crowl notes:] Around 25 years ago, three young men who'd been connected with our church - and a fourth who went to another Pentecostal church - killed themselves. In each case the main reason was a recent breakup with a girl friend. We have a tendency to think that young men aren't affected by relationship break-ups - and certainly, many don't appear to be - but even without these 'warning signs' from ASIST, I would have placed this high on the list of possible reasons for a young man committing suicide.

Unemployment in NZ

In the latest Vulnerability Report from the NZ Council of Christian Social Services shows that the current unemployment rate is 7.3%.

This is even more alarming when it’s broken down into who is most affected: youth, Maori and Pacific peoples and benefit dependent households are bearing the brunt.

The unemployment rate for youth aged 15-19 years is a staggering 23% and the unemployment rate for Maori aged between 15-24 years is nearly 26%.

Also of concern is the longer term impact of financial deprivation on our youngest citizens. A wealth of research indicates that now is the time to build up investment in our children and young people.

The Report covers a great deal more material in its seven pages, and is well worth reading for anyone who wants to know what's happening to the poor and disadvantaged in our society.

Young New Zealand

Throughout New Zealand, there are Presbyterian churches, elders and ministers who focus much of their time on ways to be in touch with the young people around them. Some churches are more successful than others, often because the right kind of person is in the role of youth leader, or because there is a good team of people reaching out to young people.

Having information about young people is one way in which to improve your ability to work with them. This may be information that's primarily local, or it may be anecdotal or word of mouth.

The Ministry of Youth Development has recently improved their website and one of the pages contains youth statistics for New Zealand. Statistics may not be everyone's cup of tea (particularly not youth leaders at the coal face) but they can give interesting overviews of an area or of trends in relation to a particular subject.

As an example: In the 2006 Census,
19.5 percent of young people aged 12 to 24 identified as Mäori,
9.3 percent as Pacific,
13.1 percent Asian
and 1.2 percent as Other ethnicities.
These figures are all significantly higher than the proportion of the total population that identifies with each of these ethnic groups. In other words each of these people groups has more young people than old. The only exception are the Europeans.

You can see a graph showing these stats more clearly on the web, and further down the page a table comparing where the different ethnicities predominate.

In another section, the wellbeing of young New Zealanders is discussed.

Take a few minutes to check the site out. It may prove more valuable than you'd expect.

Kaiapoi Pa

In recent weeks one could be forgiven for thinking that Pakeha in New Zealand are either continually at odds with Maori (or vice versa) or that our history together has been one of contention and nothing else. It might also be thought that the history of the church vis-a-vis Maori had always been fraught.

News, like that about Hone Harawira, doesn't tend to help much. (See Wikipedia for a very up-to-date summary of his situation.)

However, today I came across a blog post written by Steve Taylor which draws out three stories that present a rather different picture of our mutual history. They each connect to the Kaiapoi Maori pa, which was put to seige and finally destroyed by Te Rauparaha; the other link in the stories is Christianity, and its power to change and bring forgiveness and peace.

Check this sermon out (and don't be too picky about the lack of proofreading!)

Ethnic Identity And Exposure To Maltreatment In Childhood

Evidence From A New Zealand Birth Cohort - Marie, Ferguson and Boden.

From the abstract:

Exposure to maltreatment in childhood, including sexual abuse, severe physical punishment and inter-parental violence, is an issue of growing concern in New Zealand. The present study examined the associations between ethnic identity and exposure to childhood maltreatment among a longitudinal birth cohort of individuals born in Christchurch in 1977.

Participants of Maori ethnicity reported higher rates of exposure to physical punishment and inter-parental violence, but did not report higher rates of exposure to sexual abuse. Control for a range of socio-economic and family functioning factors reduced the magnitude of the associations between ethnicity and both physical punishment and inter-parental violence, but did not fully account for the associations between ethnicity and maltreatment exposure.

Furthermore, adjustment for variations in Maori cultural identity indicated that cohort members of sole Maori identity were at significantly increased risk of exposure to both physical punishment and inter-parental violence.

It was concluded that Maori, and in particular those of sole Maori cultural identity, were at higher risk of exposure to physical punishment and inter-parental violence, and that the associations could not be fully explained by either socio-economic deprivation or exposure to family dysfunction in childhood.
This report is a valuable overview of research done as to why Maori children in particular are suffering greater abuse than their non-Maori counterparts.

Photo by Clayton Scott

SPINZ Symposium

At the SPINZ National Symposium 2009, the following paper will be presented: Emergency department re-presentations following intentional self-harm by Silke Kuehl and Dr Kathy Nelson.

The abstract is as follows:
A retrospective observational design was selected for a period of one year and data was collected from electronic clinical case notes. The sample consisted of 48 people with 73 presentations and re-presentations.

This study made several discoveries:
many re-presentations (55%) occurred within one day;
the exact number of people who re-presented many times to ED is unknown, but is far higher than reported in other studies;
fewer support people were present for the second presentation;
the documentation of triage and assessments by ED staff was often minimal, though frequently portrayed immense distress of this population;
cultural input for Maori was missing;
physical health complaints and psychosis were found with some intentional self-harm presentations; challenging behaviours occurred in at least a quarter of presentations;
the medical and mental health inpatient admission rates were approximately 40% higher for second presentations.

Recommendations in regard to the use of a triage assessment tool, cultural input for Maori and the need for a mental health consultation liaison nurse in ED will be made. Staff education, collaboration between services with consumer involvement and further research of this group are required.

Further to this, the link above goes to the list of talks to be given at this Symposium. There are a number of culturally-concerned topics, both Maori and Pasifika, as well as some basics regarding suicide prevention. Anyone with a concern for people tending towards suicide should try and make time to attend.

The NZ Tui (in the photo) is used as a kind of logo on the SPINZ site - photo by 'North of Auckland'

A Practical Reference to Religious Diversity in NZ

This overview of religious practices in New Zealand is published by the Mäori Pacific Ethnic Services Police National Headquarters.

It looks at the major religious groups in the country in turn, beginning with Maori, moving to Buddhist, then to Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Sikh (those after Maori are in alphabetical order, in case it isn't obvious). In each case there is an overview, a discussion of death and related issues, information about gender roles and family, physical contact and other sensitivities, and finally a section on the various religious practices - and policing.

Since the booklet is laid out for police workers primarily, things are focused from their viewpoint (hence the last section in each case). This in no way makes it un-useful for people outside the force; in fact, because it is laid out in a clear and succinct way, it is definitely of value for anyone wanting to have some basic information at hand about religions other than their own.

The Risk for Children

In the latest Maxim Institute newsletter, the following comments are made in regard to the Death and serious injury from assault of children aged under 5 years in Aotearoa New Zealand report...

According to the review, risk factors which increase the likelihood of a child suffering "fatal assault or serious injury" before their fifth birthday, include children living with "non-biological" fathers, a background of domestic violence, "mental illness," "alcohol and drug abuse," poverty and the ethnicity of the child. It confronts us with an uncomfortable statistic: "In New Zealand, Maori ethnicity is a static risk factor" associated with a six-fold greater risk for male children and a three-fold greater risk for female children. Higher risks are also associated with mothers who are young and have a low level of education. The review notes that "identified risk factors seldom occur in isolation," with the families at greatest risk ticking more than one of these boxes.

Let's be honest, none of this is news. And it has little to do with the anti-smacking 'law' that came into force last year.

Being honest about the risk factors will only go so far if we are not also willing to examine, evaluate and critique the efficacy of interventions, as the second half of the review begins to do. It identifies home visitation and parent training programmes as helpful responses to the issue of abuse. These programmes involve professionals working with families to connect them with vital services and improve their parenting. The report notes that these programmes are effective for some families, particularly when relationships with workers are strong and persistent, and when a "broad range of needs" is addressed. "Case co-ordination" between agencies is also vital—the same families continually pop up in a variety of contexts, but the co-ordination and communication between agencies is often lacking. While the Commissioner's chief response to the report was to call for funding for a "shaken baby prevention programme," our response needs to be broader than that. It needs to address all the causes of death and the range of effective interventions that the report outlines.

All this is good stuff....and knowing about this, how can the Church be involved and help? No doubt, parts of the church are already working in these areas, but if it's something that we can help further with, let's do it.

Māori youth health and wellbeing improves

But there are still concerns.
Results from a 2007 study on youth in NZ, 2007, show that Māori secondary school students are happier and are less likely to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and use marijuana compared to Māori students in 2001.
However, Māori students are more likely to experience socio-economic hardship, be exposed to violence and have higher health needs like being overweight and experiencing emotional health concerns than their Pakeha peers.
Māori students have more health issues but are also more likely to experience difficulty accessing health services when they when they need them.
Nevertheless, Māori students report many strengths and assets. Almost all report being proud to be Māori, and over one-third speak and understand te reo Māori. Most Māori students say they want to stay at school till year 13 (form 7), and almost 90% of Māori students said that their parents care about them very much.

These are significant steps forward. If the coming generation of Māori can lift the status of their people in New Zealand, the next twenty years will hopefully be brighter. For the full media release, click here.

Living Works

Suicide is an ongoing concern in the mental health area, with the NZ Maori population being even more hard hit by it than the European one, particularly amongst younger people.

One group that is focused on ways to prevent suicide is Living Works.
Their website says the following:

[Our] programs were developed in response to a growing concern about suicide. They recognise that many who consider suicide would rather live if they could find support to stay safe and deal with painful problems in living. Their suicides are preventable.

Many things can help prevent suicide. LivingWorks focuses on increasing the awareness, knowledge and skills of caregivers - resourcing them to play a more informed, active suicide prevention role.

Vision: enhancing resources today, saving lives for tomorrow.

Mission: to create learning experiences that help communities prevent suicide.

Aim: to support sustainable, life-assisting resources.

Outcome: for the benefits to live on.

One Person, One Vote

A couple of extracts from Maxim Institute's latest newsletter, which discusses Philip Joseph's call for Maori seats to be abolished:

A new paper has stirred up controversy by calling for the seven Maori seats in Parliament to be abolished. The paper, written by Professor of Law and constitutional expert Professor Philip Joseph, makes the case that the Maori seats have created an "insidious" form of discriminatory privilege. He claims that while they were once necessary for ensuring adequate Maori representation in Parliament the seats now work against fair representation for Maori and other ethnicities. Professor Joseph's concerns about the Maori seats are warranted, as they divide society by ethnicity and make it difficult to foster the common good.

Some argue that the purpose of the seats is now redundant as under MMP Maori members "have a 5 percent higher representation than the relative national population of Maori," however, it is not a question of how many of which ethnicity or sex or age sit in Parliament relative to the proportion in the population. The bigger question is why do we assume that someone must share our ethnicity or sex to be able to represent us well?

What makes a Maori a Maori?

Just catching up on a couple of Grapevine magazines, and found another article of interest. For those who puzzle over what makes a Maori a Maori, and many other issues relating to Maori and Pakeha in New Zealand, this is an accessible and readable interview with Sam Chapman, who, with his wife Thelma, is the founder of Houhanga Rongo and Project Awhi

Sam and Thelma live in Otara, South Auckland, and since 1978 have offered their love and their home to the kind of people no one else wants: people from prisons and gangs, and other people who are socially not in the right status quo.

You can find the article on Grapevine's website (amongst a host of other good material).

Photo courtesy of the NZ Herald

SANE advertising

This effective 'road' sign comes from a campaign being run by SANE Australia. There's a brief video ad on the site from a campaign focusing on mental health. One of the main messages SANE is promoting is that often close family members see the signs even before the person who's having mental health problems. This leads to them needing to encourage the person to get help. The campaign is similar to the one shown in NZ in regard to depression.
It's an importantpoint to note that:

The 2005-2006 data shows that the rate of suicide is higher for Mâori (17.9 per 100,000) than non-Mâori (12.0 per 100,000). This disparity has increased over the past nine years.
While fewer Mâori people died by suicide in 2005 than in 2004, the three year moving average rates - a more robust measure of what’s happening over time – show the Mâori suicide rate has increased by 5.2 percent from 2002-2004 to 2003-2005.

Addressing the needs of Mâori is particularly important because Mâori also have poorer outcomes in other areas relating to suicide. For example, depression is a major risk factor for suicide. Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey shows that Mâori report higher rates of depression than all other ethnic groups, and, with the exception of Pacific peoples, are less likely to access services for a mental health problem.

Two recent books on the Future

New Zealand Unleashed: the country, its future and the people who will get it there, by Steve Garden. Looks at the changes, looks at our history and particularly at our ability to innovate – both from a Maori and a Pakeha perspective. Sees creativity as a vital force in taking us forward. Published 2007 Random House.

Futurehype, the myths of technology change, by Bob Seidensticker. Spends a lot of time telling us how the future can’t be predicted, and how previous predictions have often been wrong. Message seems to be to not to take everything as gospel in terms of hype and media promotion. Published Berrett-Koehler, 2006