Decade of Mäori mental health workforce leadership
massey-university
Mon Feb 09 2009 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Decade of Mäori mental health workforce leadership
Monday, 9 February 2009, 4:40 pm
Press Release: Massey University
Monday, February 9, 2009
Decade of Mäori mental health workforce leadership
An ambitious bid made a decade ago to secure funding for health scholarships has led to more than 200 Mäori students gaining qualifications in mental health.
A symposium to mark the 10th anniversary of Te Rau Puawai, a scholarship programme administered by Massey and funded by the Ministry of Health, will be held at the Manawatu campus on Friday, February 13.
The symposium will showcase increased capacity and leadership made within the Mäori mental health workforce and how Te Rau Puawai has contributed to the mental health sector. Speakers included Riki Nia Nia, one of the first graduates of the programme, who is the Capital and Coast District Health Board's Director of Mäori Health.
Mr Nia Nia was managing a public health service in Whanganui when he enrolled in the Master of Philosophy (Mäori Studies) programme extramurally under the supervision of Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Mäori and Pasifika) Professor Mason Durie, then Head of the School of Mäori Studies.
“The mentoring and financial support I received from Te Rau Puawai was pivotal in enabling me to achieve my Master’s degree," Mr Nia Nia says. "The programme itself has contributed to the increase of professional capacity and capability in the mental health workforce and has enabled many Mäori health workers to achieve academic success.
“It would be great to have similar programmes running in other areas, particularly where there are workforce shortages. It was a privilege to participate in the programme, I strongly recommend it to other potential recipients and I am committed to supporting current and future students."
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Te Rau Puawai, which translates as the First 100, is offered extramurally. As well as being one of the largest scholarship programmes at Massey, it also has the highest success rates. Since 1999, students have had a pass rate of 85 per cent and in the past two years that increased to between 90 and 95 per cent.
Professor Durie recalls when he and Professor Taiarahia Black were due to meet with the former Health Funding Authority to discuss their proposal to fund 100 scholarships and did not think they would get what they asked for.
“Initially our proposal was for a scholarship programme for Mäori health. The best we thought we might get was five to 10 scholarships. The authority offered to fund the entire programme as a workforce development programme specifically for mental health. The agreement was that the authority would provide funds for scholarships and administration and Massey would guarantee 100 graduates over a five-year period.”
The target for the first contract was met. When the authority was disestablished the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Directorate took over funding the programme with consequent targets consistently met and exceeded.
Professor Durie says the programme has pioneered a new approach to learning support built around active outreach to extramural students. “Te Rau Puawai has a whänau philosophy, uses expert tutoring, twice-yearly hui, course advice, regular telephone counselling and has created a wide network of graduates in the mental health sector.”
Monica Koia has been managing the programme for Massey for the past seven years and is based at the Manawatu Campus in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She attributes the success of the programme to having support for learning from the students’ workplaces, whänau and the university’s academic staff as well as not having the stress of finding money to pay for fees.
“Over the years our graduates have studied a full range of qualifications in nursing, social work, clinical psychology, Mäori health and rehabilitation. The majority have attained undergraduate qualifications, 35 have master’s degrees and two have graduated with PhDs. Eight are practising as psychologists.
“This year we have 120 students enrolled as part of the programme, more than half are studying at postgraduate level, including six doctoral students.
“A number of our students started out as second chance learners, without the programme they may not have taken up tertiary training. We are finding that once they start the learning process they’re more likely to continue the journey into higher education.”
She says that partnerships with a number of health agencies formed in recent years, including district health boards, public health organisations and iwi authorities in Manawatu, Northland, Auckland, the Bay of Plenty and East Coast have meant the programme and Mäori mental health workforce continues to flourish.
Ministry of Health Director-General Population Health Dr Janice Wilson says Te Rau Puawai is a successful example of a collaborative and coordinated approach to increase the skills and qualifications of the Mäori mental health workforce. She says the Ministry is proud to be associated with the joint venture with Massey and sees it as an innovative and exciting way of contributing Mäori graduates to the mental health workforce.
ENDS
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