New health cadetship is opening doors for Wairoa job seekers
The eight-week, paid Whāngaitia cadetship was popular among Ministry of Social Development's job seekers, with 24 competing for the Wairoa programme, of which nine were selected.
Ministry regional commissioner for the East Coast Steve Smits-Murray said the Whāngaitia cadetship launch in June marked an important milestone for the community.
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Otago Daily Times
23-07-2025
- Otago Daily Times
Dunedin study data to be shared with OECD
Sandhya Ramrakha. Photo: supplied Data from the Dunedin study about how early life experiences shape people's futures will help inform international social policies. The landmark collaboration between the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will inform policymakers from around the world about the research and what can be done about its implications. Dunedin Study research manager Dr Sandhya Ramrakha said the report identified eight different pathways that people took, from those who enjoyed consistently good outcomes to those who faced persistent struggles with poor health, long-term unemployment or low educational achievement. Dr Ramrakha said intervention programmes in early life could help prevent worse outcomes. "Early investment pays off. "If you are able to develop strong self-regulation and cognitive development in childhood then these are linked to more stable, positive adult outcomes." Eighteen percent of the study's members experienced a "persistent disadvantage" and social risks across adulthood which began in childhood. They were disengaged from education, employment and the community. The Dunedin study provided "good evidence" for the OECD to inform policy around the world. The report concept was developed by the late Distinguished Prof Richie Poulton, who was the Dunedin study director for more than 25 years, and Dorothy Adams, an independent adviser who formerly worked at the OECD on secondment from the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development. Prof Poulton was deeply committed to using evidence to improve social outcomes, so much so that he donated his Royal Society Te Apārangi Rutherford Medal award to support this report.
Scoop
22-07-2025
- Scoop
The Famous Dunedin Study Gets World-wide Attention
The landmark Dunedin Study of babies born in the early 1970s has caught the eye of the OECD. The study followed the lives of 1037 babies babies born at Queen Mary Maternity Hospital, Dunedin, in 1972. The participants were assessed every two years, then as adults every five to seven years. Using over 52 years of data, the Dunedin researchers identified eight different pathways strongly linked to early factors like mental health, childhood trauma, and cognitive skills. The OECD plans to use these findings to help policymakers around the world understand how early life experiences shape futures that thrive or struggle. Dorothy Adams, an independent adviser who worked at the OECD on secondment from the NZ Ministry of Social Development, told Morning Report the collaboration was "incredibly valuable". While there are other overseas longitude study, with a couple done over a similar timeframe, the Dunedin Study is unique, partly due to its very high retention rate of about 90 percent. "The OECD, in their view, it [the Dunedin Study] is world leading in many regards," Adams said. She said a particularly interesting finding from the study was the role IQ plays throughout an individual's life. "Young ones found to have good, or high IQ were more likely to do better in life then those with low IQ," she said. She said IQ is amenable to intervention, and research findings are starting to be implemented in programmes. For example, the study found ages three to four were critical for development of self regulation - how you think, behave and feel. "The Dunedin Study didn't necessarily give the answer about what to do, but it really narrowed down the search," Adams said. In response, a programme called Engage was developed, a game that helps develop cognitive skills in children, and was implemented in about half of New Zealand's Early Childhood Education (ECE). "It's being measured, it's being monitored and we are seeing results," Adams said. "I think that is a really lovely example of how these research findings are starting to be used in intervention." She said researchers are starting to look at how the Dunedin Study could be used more for contemporary challenges and to guide intervention development.
Scoop
21-07-2025
- Scoop
Booze Warnings On Hold
, for The Detail Outdated alcohol guidelines put New Zealand out of step with modern research, but our health authorities are in no hurry to update them. In Canada, proposed guidelines for low-risk drinking set the weekly limit at two drinks. Here in New Zealand, the recommendation is to cap alcohol at 10 drinks weekly for women, and 15 for men, with two alcohol-free days per week. Despite these guidelines being nearly 15 years old, and documents from Health NZ showing that they consider a review of the guidelines to be 'necessary', for now, the guidelines are staying as they are. "The complication is that the Ministry of Health has come in over the top of [Health NZ] and has said 'actually these are our guidelines ... we want to control this and we're putting a pause on that work'," says RNZ's Guyon Espiner. "It certainly does show that they're listening to the alcohol industry, who are pretty exercised about this - because as you can imagine, this could have a significant effect on sales if people did take this advice and did drink significantly less." In a series of articles over the past few months, Espiner has reported on issues of alcohol harm and how the alcohol lobby has impacted policy in New Zealand. Through documents he received through the Official Information Act (OIA), he found that Health NZ commissioned a review of the low-risk guidelines. But in October 2024, a lobbyist emailed Ross Bell, who is a manager in the Ministry of Health's Public Health Agency, asking why Health NZ's website said the guidelines were under review. In December, following a second email which again asked about the review and also complained about mention of the Canadian guidelines on Health NZ-run website ' Bell emailed Health NZ saying "All work on this project will now pause. You will update relevant Health NZ websites to remove references to the review and also to other jurisdictions' guidelines (including the Canadian one)." But in a statement to The Detail, the Ministry of Health says it "understands Health New Zealand has continued some work related to the review. The Ministry is working with Health New Zealand on potential next steps, including how Health New Zealand's progress on the review to date can be used to inform any future work in this area" and that "the Ministry is currently considering where the next phase (Phase 2) will fit as it prioritises its work programme for 2025/26." The Ministry's statement, which is attributed to Dr Andrew Old, Deputy Director-General, Public Health Agency, goes on to say that "as part of good policy process, the Ministry engages with a broad range of interested parties-including community organisations, public health experts, and the industry-to ensure any regulatory approaches are well-informed and transparent. Reference to the drinking guidelines review was removed from the website to avoid confusion about roles and responsibilities as the guidelines are now led by the Ministry of Health - rather than Health New Zealand which has responsibility for the site. This was an internal Ministry decision." In today's episode of The Detail, Espiner details other examples of contact between the alcohol lobby and health policy makers. "The material I've got shows that yes they've had a lot of meetings, a lot of email contact, in fact one looked like a regular meeting between alcohol lobbyists and Ministry of Health staff. They've also shared with the alcohol industry their plans on how they will combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder ... they shared that entire draft document with them and also shared with them plans about how they might spend the alcohol levy." Espiner says that while this contact is going on, tobacco lobbyists are completely 'locked out of the policy process". "We're signatory to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, [which is] a World Health initiative, and there's a clause in there that New Zealand is signed up to that says you won't allow the vested interests of the tobacco industry to shape policy. "What's interesting is that the alcohol industry has escaped most of that scrutiny." For Massey University associate professor Andy Towers, who has worked on the Health NZ review, it is a clear mistake for New Zealand to allow lobbyists a role. "It's very, very clear that you don't invite the wolf into the henhouse," he says. "Unfortunately the alcohol industry makes money based on alcohol use and resulting alcohol harms and in a space where we are trying to reduce the harmful use of alcohol and reduce those harms for society and for communities, there is not space for the alcohol industry there. They do not get to sit at the table, just as you wouldn't invite an arms manufacturer to the table to talk about cessation of violence." In this episode of The Detail, Towers explains how knowledge around the harm of alcohol has evolved in the past 20 years, and where New Zealand sits on alcohol use compared to other countries. Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
