Māori Health

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Current projects

Current Projects

Refocusing Successful Interventions for Māori Deaf/hearing-impaired Children and their Whānau  

Kirsten Smiler’s PhD research explores the nature and impacts of early intervention for Māori Deaf/hearing-impaired children and their whānau. Māori deaf and hearing-impaired children are over-represented in diagnostic statistics; often diagnosed at a later age than other children. The recent introduction of newborn screening for hearing loss in Aotearoa aims to identify hearing loss during the early years, in the hope that intervention services are timely and capture young children during a critical period of language development. Case studies explore the experiences and expectations of Māori Deaf children and their whānau and key informants working within in the early intervention sector. The research commenced in late 2006. Kirsten was on parental leave during 2008 and resumed her research in 2009.

Funding:  Health Research Council of New Zealand

HSRC Researcher: Kirsten Smiler

The Significance of Culture in Mental Health Understandings

Drawing on findings from her doctoral research, Lynne Pere’s postdoctoral research investigates the influence of culture on the meanings that Indigenous peoples with mental health experience impart to their illness, and the implications of this for mental health service delivery and policy. The qualitative study involves face-to-face, in depth ‘kōrero’ with Indigenous peoples with personal mental health experience, and Indigenous mental health experts, from tribal regions and mental health services within New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

To date, a number of international conference presentations and published journal articles have focused on the importance of listening to and hearing Indigenous voice. They explore the possibility that when time is taken to consider Indigenous understandings, when there is a genuine interest in Indigenous people’s experiences, mental health recovery improves through a greater sense of ‘being understood’ and accepted, and an increased self-worth. These outputs have more recently been influenced by data collection throughout Australia involving ‘yarns’ with around 50 Aboriginal leaders and health experts. Common themes that emerged focus on internalised racism, Indigenous silence and Indigenous voice, suicide, intergenerational trauma and cultural resilience. Analysis of this data is currently underway, with further data collection planned in Canada in 2010. Melody (Cheryl) Naera-Barnett is now working with Lynne on this project.

Funding: Health Research Council of New Zealand

HSRC Researchers: Lynne Pere, Melody (Cheryl) Naera-Barnett

Facilitating Whānau Resilience through Māori Primary Health Intervention

This research examines how the concept of resilience is utilised in Māori primary health programmes and how it relates to whānau ora. The research is a partnership between a Māori health provider Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority (Ms Jennifer Tamehana), the Health Services Research Centre and Whakauae Research Services (Dr Heather Gifford, Dr Amohia Boulton). Using key informant interviews and focus groups the research will test the hypothesis that primary health approaches in Māori settings have the ability to assist whānau to increase resilience by supporting individuals and whānau to find resources that sustain their wellbeing and to do so in culturally meaningful ways. Outcomes include a) a greater understanding of the link between whānau ora and resilience and the role of Māori health providers in strengthening individual, whānau and community resilience; b) a mechanism for strengthening the role of research in Māori PHO health service provision so that research becomes part of programme development; c) a baseline from which measures of Indigenous resilience may be developed. During 2009, data collection on the project commenced with a review of the literature and collation of key documents. Fieldwork commences in 2010.

Funding:  Health Research Council of New Zealand

HSRC Researcher: Jackie Cumming