Pacific populations need a different approach to mental health care than pakeha New Zealanders, according to a book edited by Dr philip Culbertson (recently retired from school of Theology), Dr Margaret Agee (Education), and psychotherapist Cabrini ‘Ofa Makasiale, a clinical and cultural adviser with Relationship services whakawhanaungatanga, Auckland.
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 editors say the book is the first to deal with mental health from within the world view of the Pacific people themselves, and for this reason offers unique insights into cultural dimensions of mental well-being.
"European or Pakeha definitions of mental health generally focus on an isolated individual, one part of whom is not well," says Philip Culbertson. "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."
Margaret 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, etc. 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."
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.
* Picture: From left to right are Margaret Agee, Philip Culbertson and Cabrini ‘Ofa Makasiale.
