Pacific populations need a different approach to mental health care than Pakeha New Zealanders, according to a new book on the mental health and well-being of Pacific people.
Penina Uliuli: Contemporary Challenges in Mental Health for Pacific Peoples (University of Hawai’i Press, 2007) is a collaborative work comprising contributions from 19 Samoan, Tongan, Niuean and Hawaiian mental health practitioners and researchers. The book is edited by two University of Auckland academics, Dr Philip Culbertson (School of Theology) and Dr Margaret Agee (Faculty of Education). The book is also co-edited by psychotherapist Cabrini ‘Ofa Makasiale, a clinical and cultural adviser with Relationship Services Whakawhanaungatanga, Auckland.
The editors say the book is the first to deal with the issue of mental health from within the world view of the Pacific people themselves, and for this reason offers unique insights into cultural dimensions of mental wellbeing.
"European or Pakeha definitions of mental health generally focus on an isolated individual, one part of whom is not well," says Dr Culbertson, who has worked with Pacific communities since 1993 as a theology lecturer and as a psychotherapist. "This could hardly be more confusing for Pasifika people, who do not isolate mind from body from spirit from family from environment but see them as one holistic system. What Pakeha people might call a mental health issue, Pacific people might see as a relationship or spiritual issue."
Dr Agee says the mental health issues facing Pacific populations in New Zealand are, in many ways, the same as those that face every other population: youth suicide, depression, loneliness, anxiety, phobias, eating disorders, trauma, alienation, broken relationships, domestic violence, sexual abuse, alcohol and gambling addiction. But she says there are added pressures for Pacific people.
"A high percentage of Pacific people also suffer the effects of colonisation, migration, misunderstanding, poverty, and the stress of living between two very different cultures. They also suffer problems generated by their own communities, such as the unrealistic financial expectations of many Pasifika churches, the drain of sending remittances overseas, and a tendency to define cultural identity in a way that ignores the multiple or hybrid identities of many Pacific people," says Dr Agee.
The co-editors say there can be disastrous consequences for individuals, families and communities if people in need of care and support turn to a system that doesn’t understand them and offers treatments and advice that are culturally inappropriate.
To hear more about the issues explored in Penina Uliuli: Contemporary Challenges in Mental Health for Pacific Peoples click here.
Photo caption (L-R): Margaret Agee, Cabrini ’Ofa Makasiale and Philip Culbertson, co-editors of Penina Uliuli: Contemporary Challenges in Mental Health for Pacific Peoples (University of Hawai’i Press, 2007).
