A study has found Island youths who have been born outside the Pacific or who have migrated to countries such as New Zealand, Australia or the United States, are much more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety.
According to Dr Siale Foliaki, New Zealand’s first Tongan consultant psychiatrist, who was involved in the study, “People born in the Pacific have 50 per cent less rates of mental disorder compared to their relatives born in New Zealand and I think those rates would probably apply to Australian born Polynesians or American born Polynesians,”
The high suicide risk for young Pacific people has prompted Pasifikology, a network of Pasifika psychologists, graduates and psychology students to host a symposium on suicide at a conference in Auckland in early April.
The symposium will be part of the GPS 2012: Growing Pacific Solutions for our families conference. The conference is the first ever conference aimed specifically at addressing mental health, addiction and disability issues within New Zealand’s Pacific community. It has been organised by Le Va, Pasifika within Te Pou – the national centre for mental health, addiction and disability workforce development.
Dr Monique Faleafa, national manager of Le Va and a member of Pasifikology said for the Pacific suicide statistics to change, Pacific people in New Zealand must be part of the solution.
“The New Zealand suicide prevention strategy clearly identifies that suicide prevention strategies aimed at Pacific peoples need to be tailored for those peoples, and mindful of specific cultural contexts and beliefs,” Dr Faleafa said.
“It makes no sense to develop solutions which are not based in a cultural context.”
New Zealand is home to the world’s largest population of Pacific Islanders, with 265,974 identifying as Pacific at the last Census. Sixty per cent of those were born here.
Auckland is the biggest Pacific city in the world – a third of the country’s Pacific Islanders live in Manukau with the second and third largest populations in Auckland City and Waitakere City respectively.
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