Transcript
One in five people in New Zealand are said to suffer from depression of some form. Agencies say with many in the Pasifika community dealing with poverty and trauma, depression could be even more prevalent among them.
Some of Salote's earliest memories are full of sadness.
"Sharing this really tiny flat with my family. We were all crunched up into this two bedroom flat. There was about 12 of us and I remember feeling sad and thinking, 'is this how my life is going to be?' And I was just not happy at all and I remember hoping that I would wake up and be somewhere else, somewhere else richer, because to me, being poor was not a nice thing."
Salote, born in New Zealand to Tongan and Samoan parents, also struggled to find an identity of her own in her early yearS, leading to depression and later suicidal thoughts.
"When you are half-caste, quarter-caste, whatever, it is hard when it comes to identity because you have all these people trying to say to you, 'oh who are you?' I remember growing up and having both families - one family going 'oh you are not really a Samoan because you can't speak the language' oh you are not really Tongan because you can't speak the language or you can't do this and it was hard enough to grow up in New Zealand as an islander anyway."
Feleti's mental distress began with the breakdown of his relationship with his father, on the back of a tragic death in their lives. However he found solace initially in a new relationship with his soon to be Samoan wife, before being led to seek help with a university counsellor.
He says he has seen a lot of the Pasifika community suffering.
"It's kind of in some ways like a virus, it doesn't discriminate and it is wide-ranging and it is pervasive and soul destroying. It doesn't matter if you live in Remuera or in whether you live in Flaxmere. We are susceptible as human beings to some form of depression or feeling down or not being able to cope."
Anita is a Samoan woman brought up in Hawkes Bay, where a traumatic experience, during her school years, triggered what she later learnt was clinical depression.
She didn't feel she could share what she was going through with her family at the time.
"It's a big burden for a kid, for a teenage 12 year old to think, you don't want to sadden your parents. You have to pretend everything is OK. Being the eldest I also had to look out for my sisters."
However she says the cultural concept of tama toa helped her.
"That idea that we are all warriors and that we are fighters, that was very important because my parents certainly were survivors and they were fighters. That is the thing they taught. That you have to fight for what you want. We are warriors, descendants of warriors. The only thing that kept me going when I have fallen into a terrible state of depression was that I am not going to let this beat me."
The impact of culture on the mental health is no surprise to Monique Faleafa, the CEO of Le Va, an NGO specialising in Pasifika health issues.
"What we've got really strong evidence for young Pacific people, the stronger their cultural identity, the stronger their mental well-being. I get people asking, 'well is it culture? Is it mental wellness?' For me, they are inseparable. They are both intertwined, so the stronger the culture, the stronger the well-being."
Mary Maringikura Campbell, a mental health consumer consultant, agrees that it is important to know your family history, so you have something to connect with.
Ms Maringikura Campbell says also says young people need to be equipped with coping mechanisms to deal with bad times.
"We bring up our children for example to think that life is going to be great. We don't being up our children to actually say life is going to be great but there is going to be some really hard times where life is shit. And it is about learning about coping with all the bumps on the road."
Ms Maringikura Campbell says Pasifika are some of the most stigmatised patient groups in New Zealand.
"We don't have the same stigma when someone gets cancer, they get a lot of support. People feel very sad for them, but there is still that sort of feeling that people with mental illness have done something to deserve it. Have done something wrong. Maybe they have breached a tapu, whatever it is. It is their fault."
Ms Maringikura Campbell says if people were looked at holistically, as emotional and spiritual, rather than just a physical body, there may be a reduction of stigma.
In the meantime she says the sector should customise its approach to Pasifika as psychiatric care is based on a western model which doesn't always meld well with them.
Auckland has a dedicated Pacific team, but Ms Maringikura Campbell says the rest of the country has a shortage of Pasifika nurses, doctors and psychologists.
"Slowly we are getting more and more Pacific psychiatric nurses coming through but you have to also understand that forensic and psychiatric nursing is not a very attractive pathway for many nurses so a lot of the nurses we get come from England, so they are imported , so they are a totally different culture."
Ms Maringikura Campbell says a lack of health literacy mean staff and consumers can talk past each other and people can feel intimidated when entering the system.
Monique Faleafa, says specific programmes must be produced for Pasifika communities.
And most importantly, services must make themselves more accessible.
"The biggest problem we have in New Zealand is that our Pacific families and communities seem to have extremely high rates of mental illness but really low rates of access to services and what we see is Pacific families accessing in crisis when we could have saved so much grief and disruption and distress for that family if we had of intervened really early."
Salote and Anita has accessed services in the past and Feleti encourages others to do so.
"Seek help...and I know within Pacific island culture there is a real sense of pride of doing it yourself and standing on your own two feet with your head held high but mental illness is such a serious problem and it can manifest later on in life into attitudes and behaviours that can really destroy."
All three are in a good place at the moment but acknowledge depressing times can be expected.
Anita doesn't fear them.
"My particular mental illness has actually driven me forward because as much as I do have those moments, I also want to overcome those moments, become a better person and to create a life where I am a happier person and more satisfied. So it is always that one dark moment can push me to create better moments."
And that's the key, health worker, trainer, sufferer, all say its OK to be depressed, but your experiences must be shared and talked about.
