Whānau-centric coronial processes to improve suicide prevention strategies
A team from the Faculty of Health has been awarded an HRC project grant for research aiming to understand how whānau engagement in coronial investigations can help improve suicide prevention for rangatahi Māori.
Dr Clive Aspin (Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Tamaterā) and a team from the School of Health will be working on the three-year project entitled ‘Whānau-centric coronial processes to improve suicide prevention strategies’.
The project will provide unique insights and knowledge to help improve coronial processes for Māori, contribute to developing culturally appropriate postvention programmes, and underpin culturally safe whānau-centric rangatahi suicide prevention programmes.
Dr Aspin says the rates of suicide and attempted suicide for rangatahi Māori are among the highest in the world. This project responds directly to the imperatives of Aotearoa’s suicide prevention strategy, Every Life Matters – He Tapu te Oranga o ia Tangata which stresses whānau must be at the front and centre of efforts to drive down unacceptably high rates of rangatahi suicide.
Coronial findings provide potentially important knowledge about suicide prevention strategies, and offer opportunities to enhance initiatives aimed at reducing the numbers of people who die by suicide, Dr Aspin says.
“Our recent research suggests coronial reporting and engagement with whānau is often minimal, sometimes non-existent, or usually does not take culturally appropriate perspectives into consideration. Current models of coronial investigation fail to capitalise on the rich resources that reside within whānau.”
The proposed research builds on findings of a study which examined coronial files on rangatahi suicide and will include participatory and co-designed research with whānau, and engagement with coroners.
Informed by a Kaupapa Māori framework, the project will be led by a team of Māori researchers with track records in applying kaupapa Māori paradigms to research that responds to the needs of Māori and focuses on reducing health and social disparities. They will work closely to co-design the project with three Māori community organisations: Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, a Māori health provider in Hauraki; Maraeroa Marae, Waitangirua; and Te Puna Ora o Mataatua, which provides integrated health, medical, social and employment services using a whānau ora model of care.
“This approach aligns closely with the articles of the Turamarama ki te Ora Declaration which calls for indigenous leadership and tino rangatiratanga in all aspects of Māori and indigenous suicide prevention,” Dr Aspin says.
The team includes Dr Denise Blake, Dr Kirsten Smiler, Ms Fran Kewene, Dr Melanie Cheung, Ms Darna Appleyard, Associate Professor Terry Fleming and Professor Antonia Lyons.