[ad_1]
A narrow focus on mental health may prevent us from
understanding the broader wellbeing impacts of COVID-19 in
Aotearoa, Te Hiringa Mahara – the Mental Health and
Wellbeing Commission – has found in its first report on the
impact of the pandemic on wellbeing.
“For people to
flourish and experience good mental health and wellbeing,
services and resources are important, but not enough. People
need to have their rights, dignity and tino rangatiratanga
upheld; they need to feel valued and connected to their
communities and their cultures; and they need skills,
resilience, hope and purpose for the future,” says Dr.
Filipo Katavake-McGrath, Te Hiringa Mahara Director of
Wellbeing System Leadership and Insights.
“Just
because these wellbeing dimensions are less tangible, does
not mean that they are less influential in creating stress
and distress. In fact, understanding the real impacts of the
pandemic requires an understanding of these broader
dimensions of wellbeing.”
For this report, Te Hiringa
Mahara analysed more than 3000 media articles from the
beginning of the pandemic to April 2022. Its analysis found
that coverage tended to focus on the material resources and
services that people had access to during that period of the
pandemic, and the stresses that emerged when these were
lacking and life was disrupted.
The analysis used a
natural language processing algorithm to look at how we
collectively talked about mental health and wellbeing during
this period, and how this changed over the pandemic. The
wellbeing analysis in the report also drew on the He
Ara Oranga Wellbeing Outcomes Framework which describes
the aspects of good wellbeing in Aotearoa, and guides the
way Te Hiringa Mahara monitors the systems that influence
these in our communities.
This media analysis
highlighted gaps in the way we consider and have considered
the impacts of the pandemic in Aotearoa.
“Media
coverage during this time often focused on universal
experiences of the pandemic. A sense of ‘we are all in
this together’ may have been beneficial for rallying
together a public health response, and for encouraging
empathy, but we know that some communities experienced
poorer wellbeing across a range of measures. If our
understanding of peoples’ experience of wellbeing is
monolithic, that we are all roughly the same, we miss the
opportunity to understand and support greater wellbeing for
different communities.
“News media plays an important
role in Aotearoa, in shaping and reflecting the
conversations of the nation. During the pandemic this role
has been more important than ever – but when important
dimensions of wellbeing are missing from our conversation,
we are not sufficiently and appropriately considering the
impacts of the pandemic on people in Aotearoa, and not
necessarily focusing on the right solutions.”
This
report is the first of a short series of focused reports Te
Hiringa Mahara will produce over the coming year.
“We
hope to use these reports and their findings to contribute
to our collective understanding of the impacts of the
pandemic on wellbeing and on different parts of Aotearoa and
what can be done to address these gaps.”
© Scoop Media
[ad_2]
Source link