He Ara Waiora webinar2: Biculturalism - A clinical and cultural approach to wellness?

Whare Tukutuku invites you to join the second of our three-part ‘He Ara Waiora’ Webinar series about the challenges of reducing Alcohol and other drugs and associated harms within hapori Māori (Māori communities).

Whare Tukutuku is an integrated approach to alcohol and other drug challenges being co-developed by Te Rau Ora and NZ Drug Foundation.
Part two of He Ara Waiora Webinar 2 discusses ‘Biculturalism - is Aotearoa ready for a clinical and cultural approach to wellness?’. Register now.

Multiple inquiries over the years have found our healthcare system to be failing Māori. The 2018 ‘He Ara Oranga Report’ into mental health found the New Zealand health system has a “colonising world view largely hostile to Māori understandings of wellbeing”. It also stated among a multiplicity of other things “institutionalised racism” and “a western model of wellbeing, with systems that strengthen that model and perpetuate further inequities”.

Māori are falling through the cracks of New Zealand’s Healthcare system. A system that is not culturally or socially attuned to the needs of Tangata Whenua and it is creating both short term and intergenerational harms in hapori Māori.

Our guests, Andre McLachlan and Selina Elkington, will discuss the need for a more clinically adept approach to wellness that includes kaupapa Māori worldviews.

Selina and Andre will examine mainstream clinical models that have implemented an ao Māori worldview - are they working? Can such approaches be developed and implemented right across our healthcare system, or is that a bridge too far? Is there a will? And what are the impediments?

SELINA ELKINGTON: No Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Toa Rangatira me Ngāti Kuia 
Selina has been an accredited addiction practitioner for many years and has seen the impact of systemic inequities on Māori communities. She has recently taken up a new position with the Royal Commission into abuse in care and is looking forward to the challenges of this mahi. Previously she was Operations Manager at Nova Star (residential alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility) in Christchurch. As a wahine Māori she has seen the devastating effects that drugs and alcohol can have on people’s lives and the significant role that trauma plays in this. Selina feels privileged to work in kaupapa that can support and create change. She believes in working with the potential of people to promote whānau ora (wellbeing of the family), and that to do this you have to be living the life and walking the talk.

ANDRE McLACHLAN: Ngāti Apa me Muaūpoko 
Andre is a Clinical Psychologist at Te Rau Ora. He has matauranga (knowledge) of both kaupapa Māori methods of healing, and clinical psychological methods to engage with whānau who have complex mental health and addiction needs. He began his career at Tokanui hospital during the early 1990s, then went on to work in Youth Services in Waikato where he completed his training as a Certified Addictions Counsellor. Andre followed this with an Honours and then a Masters Degree, while he and his wife raised a young whānau. Andre continued to work full time within the addictions sector at Pai Ake Solutions and, more recently, completed a Ph.D. focussed on collaborative service delivery in mental health and addictions. For many years now Andre has led Kaupapa Māori-based workforce development by contributing to the advancement of innovative, dynamic, kaupapa Māori-based therapeutic resources.

The He Ara Waiora series promises to be an insightful, meaningful, and at times challenging kōrero about AOD issues in Aotearoa. Register for Webinar 2 now.

• Webinar 1: Te Tiriti o Waitangi - a Pathway to Wellness? [Thursday November 5, 6.30pm]
• Webinar 2: Biculturalism - Is Aotearoa ready for a clinical and cultural approach to wellness? [Thursday November 19, 6.30pm]
• Webinar 3: The Future - What happens if our health system continues to fail tangata Māori? [Thursday December 10, 6.30pm]

Attending this webinar is worth 5 CPD points for dapaanz members.