Other Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Housework Metaphor For Gambling Public Health Action: An Indigenous Perspective, Lorna Dyall, Zoe Hawke, Ruth Herd, Papa Nahi

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Housework,thosedutiesdoneathomeorinone’scommunitytokeepandcleanand tidy, is used in this paper as a metaphor for Māori involvement in gambling public health action in New Zealand. For over a decade Māori have been developing their own voice, public health actions, gambling services, research and workforce development initiatives to address gambling related harm at a whānau, community, local government, national and now international level. Involvement in gambling public health action has required Māori to utilise our Treaty of Waitangi and now international indigenous peoples’ rights to ensuring legislation and host responsibility requirements are met at all levels in New Zealand society. Housework which is a demanding …

Indigenous Family Violence: An Attempt To Understand The Problems And Inform Appropriate And Effective Responses To Criminal Justice System Intervention, Andrew Day, Robin Jones, Martin Nakata, Dennis Mcdermott

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Whilst high levels of concern about the prevalence of family violence within Indigenous communities have long been expressed, progress in the development of evidence-based intervention programs for known perpetrators has been slow. This review of the literature aims to provide a resource for practitioners who work in this area, and a framework from within which culturally specific violence prevention programs can be developed and delivered. It is suggested that effective responses to Indigenous family violence need to be informed by culturally informed models of violence, and that significant work is needed to develop interventions that successfully manage the risk of …

Measuring Cultural Appropriateness Of Mental Health Services For Australian Aboriginal Peoples In Rural And Remote Western Australia: A Client/Clinician's Journey, Kerrie Doyle

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia suffer from poorer mental health than non-Aboriginal people, especially in remote and rural settings. Even with the ongoing adoption of the World Health Organisation’s ‘Closing the Gap’ recommendations, the determinants of mental health, including suicide rates, hospitalisation rates and access to healthcare are not noticeably improving. One of the issues for this gap is the poor cultural proficiently of mental health services, creating a cultural security threat to the workers and service users. In my work as a senior Aboriginal Mental Health worker, I have observed incidents of ongoing cultural incompetence across …

Social And Emotional Outcomes Of Australian Children From Indigenous And Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds, Naomi Priest, Jennifer Baxter, Linda Hayes

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Objectives: 1) profile the living environments and 2) examine the social and emotional outcomes of Australian children from Indigenous and cultural and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds at school entry. Method: Secondary analysis of cross- sectional data collected in Wave 1 of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n=4,735). Child mental-health outcomes were measured using parent report of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results: Significant differences in family and neighbourhood characteristics, including parental income, maternal education, maternal parenting quality and neighbourhood safety, were found in children of Indigenous and CALD backgrounds compared to the reference group of Australian-born, English-speaking children. …

Sleep And Academic Performance In Indigenous Australian Children From A Remote Community: An Exploratory Studyjpc_2059 122, Patrick Cooper, Mark Kohler, Sarah Blunden

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Aim: Disruptions to sleep in childhood are associated with poor behaviour and deficits in academic performance and executive function. Although academic performance of indigenous children from remote communities in Australia is documented as well below that of non- indigenous children, the extent of sleep disruption and its contribution to academic performance among this population has not been assessed. This pilot study aimed to objectively assess the sleep of remote indigenous children and the association between sleep disruption and both academic performance and executive function.

Method: Twenty-one children from a remote Australian indigenous community aged 6–13 years wore actigraphy for two …

Effectiveness Of The Coping Power Program In A Mexican-American Sample: Distinctive Cultural Considerations, Susan L. O'Donnell, Diomaris E. Jurecska, Robert Dyer

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This study responds to the challenges associated with delivering culturally sensitive and evidence-based treatment (EBT) to at-risk children. Current research supports group interventions based on the Coping Power Program (CPP) curriculum as EBT for improving the frequency of positive behaviors in children and adolescents. However, the effectiveness of the CPP in a Mexican-American sample has not been explored to date. This study investigated the effectiveness of the CPP delivered as a preventative intervention to Mexican-American adoles- cents in a rural school setting. A major emphasis is put on cultural sensitivity when working with this population. Cultural sensitivity is expressed by …

Community-Based Suicide Prevention Research In Remote On-Reserve First Nations Communities, Corinne A. Isaak, Mike Campeau, Laurence Y. Katz, Murray W. Enns, Brenda Elias, Jitender Sareen

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Suicide is a complex problem linked to genetic, environmental, psychological and community factors. For the Aboriginal population more specifically, loss of culture, history of traumatic events, individual, family and community factors may also play a role in suicidal behaviour. Of particular concern is the high rate of suicide among Canadian Aboriginal youth. While the need to develop interventions to reduce suicidal behaviour for First Nations on-reserve populations is evident, there may be an element of distrust of researchers by Aboriginal communities. Furthermore, research in mental health and specifically suicide is much more sensitive than studying medical illnesses like diabetes. Clearly, …

Beyond Recovery: Colonization, Health And Healing For Indigenous People In Canada, Lynn F. Lavallee, Jennifer M. Poole

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

How do we limit our focus to mental health when Indigenous teaching demands a much wider lens? How do we respond to mental health recovery when Indigenous experience speaks to a very different approach to healing, and how can we take up the health of Indigenous people in Canada without a discussion of identity and colonization? We cannot, for the mental health and recovery of Indigenous people in Canada have always been tied to history, identity, politics, language and dislocation. Thus, in this paper, our aim is to make clear that history, highlight the impacts of colonization and expound on …

Suicide In The Northern Territory, 1981–2002, Mary-Anne L. Measey, Shu Qin Li, Robert Parker, Zhiqiang Wang

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Objective: To examine trends in suicide in the Northern Territory between 1981 and 2002, and demographic and other characteristics of people completing suicide in the Top End region in 2000–2002. Design: Retrospective descriptive analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics death registration data and data from the NT Coroner’s Office.

Setting and participants: All residents of the NT who completed suicide between 1981 and 2002. Main outcome measures: Changes in the age-adjusted and age- and sex-specific rates of suicide in Indigenous and non-Indigenous NT residents over time; prior diagnosis of mental illness and use of alcohol or other drugs by those …

Indigenous Suicide In New Zealand, Annette L. Beautrais, David M. Fergusson

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

This article describes patterns of suicide and attempted suicide among the indigenous (Ma ̄ori) population of New Zealand using official data from the New Zealand Health Information Service (NZHIS). The majority of Ma ̄ori suicides (75%) occurr in young people aged <35 years. Rates of suicide are higher among Ma ̄ori males and females aged <25 than in their non-Ma ̄ori peers. Rates of hospitalization for attempted suicides are higher amongst Ma ̄ori males aged 15–24, compared to non-Ma ̄ori. In contrast, suicide is virtually unknown amongst older Ma ̄ori (60 years). This article reviews explanations for the observed rates of suicide in Ma ̄ori, and examines approaches to effective intervention to reduce rates of suicide in young Ma ̄ori.