Critical shortages in Canterbury's mental health services
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RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
'Silent crisis': Asian people missing out on mental health support
Asian Family Services commissioned the mental health and well-being report. Photo: 123RF Asian people in Christchurch are missing out on mental health support because of language and cultural barriers, as part of a "silent crisis" of worsening national statistics, community leaders say. A mental health and well-being report commissioned by Asian Family Services published in July found that 57 percent of respondents were at risk of depression , which was a 12 percent increase on the figure reported in 2021. Asian Family Services chief executive Kelly Feng said 69 percent of Korean respondents and 63 percent of Indians showed signs of depression, while life satisfaction among all Asians had fallen by 11 percent since 2021. "These findings point to a silent crisis," she said. "Asian communities are navigating mental health challenges, discrimination, disconnection, often without adequate support. We urgently need culturally responsive interventions in schools, workplaces and healthcare settings." Kelly Feng Photo: RNZ / Yiting Lin Asian Community Transformation Trust founder Allen Hou said people's struggles were compounded by a lack of bilingual mental health professionals in Christchurch. Canterbury's Asian population had grown by 30 percent since 2018, but support services lagged behind other regions, he said. "Even if people have that knowledge and want to access help, that's when they face the common challenges we know of language and culture - 'I can't speak my heart language to describe my issues and my emotions and therefore I can't engage and utilise this service fully'," he said. Hou estimated there were only a handful of mental health professionals in Christchurch who spoke Asian languages. "We're doing our best to advocate for the community about the needs and encourage them to consider that as a career path even for their children. We try to meet with counselling students who are Asians and just encourage them in this space," he said. Allen Hou from Asian Community Transformation Trust. Photo: RNZ / Anna Sargent Hou founded the Christchurch-based charitable trust in 2021. The group works with organisations, schools and GP practices to help bridge service gaps. "Since we started we heard continuously from organisations in Christchurch that service people, council and other spaces that they've never come across an organisation like us. It makes us think we're onto something that no-one has been trying to meet in Christchurch," Hou said. Hou said stigma and shame around poor mental health remained strong in some Asian cultures. While Christchurch recorded the highest life satisfaction of any city in the report, Feng said it also reported higher than average barriers to accessing mental health services, echoing Hou's experience on the ground. Feng said calls to Asian Family Services' Asian Helpline had tripled since Covid-19, rising from about 3000 annually to about 10,000. The organisation's report was based on an online survey of 1016 Asian adults in May, funded by the Ethnic Communities Development Fund, which is administered by the Ministry for Ethnic Communities. The report was the third of its kind, with earlier versions published in 2020 and 2021 . Feng said discrimination remained a significant problem, with more than one in five people experiencing race-based bias. "Only 56.5 percent Asians felt like they were accepted by the community. It's really challenging for people feeling like they are just not part of the society," she said. Hou, who immigrated from Taiwan to New Zealand aged 11 in 1998, said moving countries was often stressful. "At my age the main struggle was language, the sense of being able to make friends and understanding what was happening at schools. For my parents it's different things like medical systems, for example in Taiwan where we're from we just go to hospital, but in New Zealand you have to find a GP and everything goes from there," he said. University of Auckland social and community health senior lecturer Dr Vartika Sharma said 75 percent of ethnic minority communities in New Zealand were born overseas. "They might've come from countries where mental health is still quite stigmatised so they don't have the vocabulary to talk about mental health. That all becomes quite challenging in terms of acknowledging it's a problem in the first place," she said. Sharma said a lack of high-quality data on the mental health of Asian and Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African women and girls in New Zealand also made it harder to design effective services. "It's a point of worry because it's a population that's expected to grow, and we don't want them to be invisible," she said. Stats NZ projections show Asians will make up about 26 percent of New Zealand's population by 2043, up from 16 percent in 2018. If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Christchurch nurses regularly in tears over staff shortages
Nurse Bruce MacIntosh joined other nurses on strike in Christchurch today. Photo: RNZ/Rachel Graham A Christchurch nurse, who joined others on strike this afternoon , says staff shortages are so bad he is regularly seeing colleagues in tears. Nurses from theatre, post-anaesthetic care and radiology wards at Christchurch Hospital walked off the job from 2 to 4pm on Friday over a breakdown of collective bargaining. About 80 supporters and nurses gathered in Hagley Park, across the road from Christchurch Hospital, waving flags and posters calling for safe staffing. New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate and operating theatre assistant Bruce MacIntosh said he is constantly seeing the impact of the staffing shortages. "Its incredible when you go around the wards, and see it like we do and meet with the delegates regularly. It is a crisis. Some of the delegates are crying on the night shift when they can't fill the (staffing) spots," said MacIntosh. "It is risky for the nurses, because if something goes wrong their name is on the block, which is a risk to their practice. So, not only is there risk to the patients, but also risk to the practitioners, the nurses." Nurse Averil Cooper said she too was making a stand for the safety of the patients and nurses' registration. "We have no staff, very little staff. They are run ragged and putting their scope of practice and registration on the line," said Cooper. She said the staff are dealing with chaos every day. Gayl Marryatt, a registered nurse and NZNO delegate, said the strike was part of a rolling strike being taken by the union. She said it was to highlight that multiple parts of the hospital are being affected by the short staffing. Nurses planned to hold nation-wide industrial action on 2 September and 4 September. Health NZ said contingency plans were in place during the strike. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
The Panel with Anna Dean and Ed McKnight Part 1
Professor Michael Baker Photo: Supplied / Luke Pilkinton-Ching Tonight, on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Anna Dean and Ed McKnight. First up, he government has confirmed how much it cost us to break the contract with South Korean ship builders for new ferries: $144 million. Was it worth it? then everyone is coming down with winter colds and illnesses - it feels bad this year, but is it? Public health expert Michael Baker says it's actually pretty normal.
