A leading clinical psychologist believes more Māori psychologists are needed - as well as a specialised mātauranga Māori based training programme for them.
Dr Waikaremoana Waitoki, a Waikato university lecturer and the president of the New Zealand Psychological Society says there are 6000-7000 psychologists in the country but only 6% of those are Māori. She says that means Māori with mental health issues often don't see Māori psychologists and the ones available don't always reflect a Māori worldview.
Waitoki, nō Ngāti Hako me Ngāti Māhanga, who is a few years into researching the benefits of indigenous knowledge to the psychology profession, says the rates at which Māori experience mental health issues are higher than non-Māori but she says they would get more help from psychology "if we were to access psychology better”.
The key she suggests is a mātauranga Māori approach to psychology, which exists but clients are often “not given that choice”.
“We import psychology into New Zealand. There is no reason we can’t have a psychology derived from our own whenua and our people.”
She believes there should be a Māori-led tertiary establishment that teaches a new mātauranga Māori form of psychology.
“It’s about belief. It’s not just about the funding because a lot of amazing initiatives have got off the ground with very little money. It’s about the commitment and the belief, that you know that this is going to be useful for you and it’s going to be useful for your people.”
Waitoku also offered some advice on dealing with whānau who believe some of the misinformation spreading about Covid-19 vaccines. She warns that whānau having extreme views is not a reason to break up the family.
“Sometimes they have quite extreme views and what we want to model are aroha and manaakitanga. As Covid-19 ends, we want those relationships intact, clean relationships with our people.”
But she says the Waitangi Tribunal's Haumaru Report outlines the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi to protect Māori during the Covid-19 pandemic period, "which is a real issue".
"The government and those responsible for the context for that misinformation to spread really do need to step up."