RxPG News : New Zealand

Asian cultural awareness programme for mental health professionals

Sun, 01 May 2005 21:53:38 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Researchers at The University of Auckland School of Population Health have developed a cultural awareness training programme to help mental health workers better respond to the needs of Asian people.

The programme has been developed for the Mental Health Workforce Development Programme and the Health Research Council of New Zealand and will be trialled later this year in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

Dr Samson Tse, Director of the Centre for Asian Health Research and Evaluation at the School of Population Health, who led the study, says Asian people are a significant ethnic population in New Zealand, and some face specific mental health issues.

Recent research findings show that immigrants and refugees face particular issues such as social isolation, language barriers, family disruption, underemployment and stigmatisation. They are the new New Zealanders. It is important that everyone has good access to mental health services and receives effective and satisfactory health care, he says.

Dr Tse says that as the New Zealand population becomes more diverse the need for culturally appropriate health services is becoming paramount.

The most compelling reason is the unfavourable outcomes and under-utilisation of mental health services by ethnic groups, when compared with the general New Zealand population. This programme would be an important first step to help mental health service providers address the needs of different ethnic groups.

This is the first programme to address the needs of Asian people at a national level although there have been several local initiatives, including the work done by the Transcultural Mental Health team in Auckland District Health Board and the Asian Health Support Service in the Waitemata District Health Board.

Dr Tse says learning cultural awareness would encompass an appreciation of how variations in culture and background may affect health care.

The educational programme would pay close attention to specific groups of people within the Asian population who are seen to have the highest need - those for whom English is not their first language, refugees - especially those who have experienced torture and trauma, older people, women with young children and international students.

The programme will not only identify the issues these groups might face, but also shed light on what mental health practitioners can do in those circumstances.

The training will be offered to psychiatrists, psychiatric nurses, community support workers, occupational therapists, social workers, psychologists and general practitioners.

Once the trial is completed Dr Tse says he hopes the training programme will become an integral part of professional continuing education programmes for mental health practitioners and incorporated into undergraduate training.

Dr Tse says his team recognised that Asian people within New Zealand came from many different cultural, religious and political backgrounds.

We recognise that there will be many differences in terms of what is appropriate for these groups, but within our study we also found many common themes, primarily the importance of working with family, the stigma attached to mental health issues, and the cultural beliefs behind that.

Dr Tse says the awareness programme would also touch on the role of traditional medicines, health practices and healers.

We still have no clear idea how prevalent these practices are in New Zealand, or the credentials of the practitioners but the programme will ensure people are aware of their presence.

Are the Capital's cars belchers?

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 04:08:38 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Badly tuned vehicles cost motorists money and pollute the air. The National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) is measuring vehicle emissions in Wellington this week.

NIWA does this by using remote sensing technology as vehicles travel along the road. Drivers do not have to alter their speed or route at all. The advantages of this technology include the ability to record thousands of vehicles a day and to measure the emissions in real life driving situations. The equipment will be operated at two sites in the Ngauranga Gorge.

Vehicle exhaust emissions are detected using beams of light, and the driver is given instant feedback via a display screen which rates the emissions as poor, fair, or good. The equipment records the car registration number. This enables scientists to analyse any links between emissions quality and the characteristics of the vehicle fleet such as vehicle age, fuel type, and distance travelled. The information is used for research, not to identify individual owners or for law enforcement. Drivers will not be 'dobbed in'.

This research is part of a wider project funded by the Foundation of Research, Science & Technology looking at air quality. The project will provide useful information on air quality issues to help local councils implement and achieve national environmental standards introduced by the Ministry for the Environment last October. The national standards are aimed at improving air quality in New Zealand towns and cities.

The sites are: the Newlands off-ramp at the top of the gorge, and the route to State Highway 2 heading to Petone from the left-hand lane at the bottom of the gorge.

The work is weather-dependent. The plan is to operate at the Newlands off-ramp site on Tuesday and Thursday from approximately 1pm to 7pm, and to operate at the bottom of the gorge on Wednesday from approximately 5am to 7pm.

Govt should follow DHB lead on open source software

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 03:49:38 PST

( from http://www.rxpgnews.com ) Green Party IT Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos is congratulating District Health Boards on their move towards adopting open source software and other Government agencies should follow their lead.

A report in the IT media today says DHBs are to trial a two-tier system, with only their most intensive software users staying with Microsofts proprietary products and the rest going to open source, such as openoffice.org. They will also be asking makers of health-related software to develop open source versions of their products and pushing for greater representation in the Governments bulk contract negotiations with Microsoft. New Zealands DHBs have paid Microsoft $20 million in license fees over the last three years.

Im sure New Zealanders want their tax dollars going into treating patients rather than building Bill Gates empire, said Nandor.

Open source is a more cost effective option than commercial software all round and making greater use of it in the health sector would benefit hospital staff, patients and the local software industry.

The Government should look at why the DHBs are making this move and support other departments and agencies to follow their lead. As I have previously suggested, the Government could easily and cheaply follow Australias lead and produce a guide to evaluating open source products alongside proprietary software.

The IT industry and staff in forward-thinking departments are constantly saying that there is not enough awareness on the benefits and viability of open source products amongst Government officials. A guide would go a long way to overcoming this ignorance.

While there has been gestures of support for open source from the Government, those departments and agencies that are seriously considering the move, such as the DHBs, are doing so alone, said Nandor.