For many Māori, initial contact with a mental health service is through the justice system, via the police or welfare services, and under compulsion. Due in part to this, the problems tend to be more acute, often more difficult to treat, and accordingly result in outcomes that are less positive and more difficult to manage.
How can we come together to help those in need find the assistance that will break this cycle?
Housing problems in our community remain unchanged. They include a chronic shortage of single men’s accommodation, no HCNZ or private rental stock, Many Whānau are unable to attain home ownership through borrowing, and so they opt to build makeshift shacks on Maori land or to re-occupy previously abandoned unhealthy dwellings, cow sheds etc, resulting in amongst other things overcrowding, cross infection & recurring respiratory problems, asthma, cough, wheeze, bronchitis, pneumonia.
Let us all get together to see if we can find new ways to help those facing homelessness.