Analysis of the Hong Kong data from the Cartoon Network's New GenerAsians Survey: Presentation made in conjunction with the Hong Kong release of data from the 12 Asian nation study of youth attitudes, perceptions and behaviours at the New World Harbourview Hotel, Hong Kong, 23rd June, 1998

As a researcher on the impact of television on children, I'm interested in the relationship between watching TV and other activities

Taking it slowly with managed care - Invited address in a workshop on Managed Care for Mental Health: International Experiences and the New Zealand Direction, Schizophrenia Fellowship National Conference, Christchurch. September 5-7. 1997

Managed care arose from a need to contain the escalating health costs of the insurance and litigation based US health system, which were rising at rates of more than 10% a year through the early 1990S. It is described as the application of market forces to health. It is an insurance based system in which health management organisations (HMOs) provide cover for illness through a range of preferred providers who discount their services partly on the basis of restricting the options for care relating to particular illness groups. The heart of the managed care system is the utilization review in which the cost-effectiveness of the options for care are analysed, resulting in the more wasteful options being eliminated. Utilization review studies have found as much as a quarter to a third of all medical services performed are of little or no benefit to patients. Utilization reviews have also shifted the emphasis of care towards preventative approaches. While managed care initially resulted in increases to the cost of health care it began to be very effective in 1994 (only a 6.5% increase in national costs) with managed care group health care costs falling by 1.1% and remaining flat in 1995. A recent newspaper report describes the "inexplicable" buoyancy of the US economy, with one commentator saying that the reduction in health care insurance costs was a major contributor. A majority of US citizens have their health insurance paid by their employer, and about half the US population (135 million people) is enrolled in a managed care system. The US government expects to save $250 billion through the implementation of managed care

Television watching, enjoyment of school and respect for parents: Analysis of the Indian data from the Cartoon Network's New GenerAsians survey: Presentation made in conjunction with the New Dehli release of data from the 12 Asian nation study of youth attitudes, perceptions and behaviours at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, 22nd July, 1998

As a researcher on the impact of television violence on children, I'm interested in the relationship between television generally and children's behaviour. As parents we worry about the impact of TV on our children, particularly we worry that that our children watch too much TV and that this will affect their education. The Indian results seemed to go against conventional wisdom, for what we found was a country where children appeared to be more enthusiastic about TV than anywhere else, and yet their enthusiasm for school and family were unexcelled

Analysis of the Australian data from the Cartoon Network's New GenerAsians survey: Presentation made in conjunction with the Sydney release of data from the 12 Asian nation study of youth attitudes, perceptions and behaviours at the Regent Hotel, Sydney, 4th August, 1998

Are Australian children unique or are they similar to other children in Asia? In my short review of the truly massive amount of data collected in the Cartoon Networks New GenerAsians survey, I can only touch upon, in a speculative manner some of the interesting findings. These include the importance placed on friendship by Australian children and how that may diminish other institutions like home and school, their belief in importance of individuality, their high access to electronic media, and how this competes with TV. Also there are interesting age and gender patterns

New Zealand Deaf Mental Health: A risk to life

What are the existing deaf mental health and addiction services, the gaps and a proposed service model (Nationally Coordinated Deaf Mental Health and Addiction Service) developed by the Coalition of Deaf Mental Health Professionals (CDMHP)

The mental health service needs of the Deaf and the development of a National Plan

Issues surrounding the mental health of Deaf people receive little attention from practitioners in mental health services. International studies have shown that Deaf people are vulnerable to misdiagnosis of mental illness, denial of services and inappropriate services. In particular mental health services are unwilling or unable to recognise the relationship between Deaf culture and language and the delivery of adequate mental health promotion, and prevention and treatment of mental illness in the Deaf population. At present, most Deaf clients requiring mental health services only have access to those services provided by hearing professionals, the majority of whom have only superficial knowledge of Deaf culture, New Zealand Sign Language and the dynamics of the Deaf community. In Auckland and Northland, there are no qualified Deaf mental health professionals to deal with major illness such as schizophrenia, depression, and substance abuse and personality disorders within the Deaf community

Does Our Amazing Place build community resilience?

Objective The objective of this research was an evaluation of Our Amazing Place Treasure Hunt Events held in Unsworth Heights in the North Shore of Auckland and Massey in the West of Auckland respectively. The research focused on the question “Does Our Amazing Place build community resilience?”. Methods During the event participants were asked to fill out an evaluation form of their experience of the event and to provide some demographic data Results The statistics showed participants rated fun/fitness activities as the most enjoyable activity of the event. Secondly, they experienced a greater connection to their community in terms of becoming more aware of what their community had to offer and a high percentage of participants said they would continue connecting to their community after the event. Results also showed that a high percentage of participants engaging in the event lived locally and a over eighty percent of participants rated the event between 8 and 10 out of 10. Conclusion We identified some important patterns and themes that contribute to the building of community resilience if implemented within a community development framework. We also found that that the Our Amazing Place Treasure Hunt event is grounded in sound community development principles as it attempts to build connectedness and social capital within communities thus building community resilience in the process

Linking the spaces between : an interdisciplinary media content production project for community engagement

Beginning with the question “How can the process of developing, producing and disseminating community stories, interests and issues via broadcast and social sharing of digital content be used to engage and mobilise community interests in shared endeavours that will help drive social cohesion?” - research staff, production staff, students and community groups in a tertiary education institute’s urban environs are working together during 2014 to create a series of programmes for broadcast on Face TV. We are interested to assess how, in the process of creating content for wider audiences, a strategic approach to the dissemination of this content may facilitate better communication across community stakeholders and beyond. Influenced by the view that “a strong storytelling network is essential to creating effective reach, outreach, and mobilisation of residents, community organisations and...media” (Annenberg School for Communication USC, 2013), as well as research on the uses and limitations of digital storytelling for empowerment of marginalised voices in community-based projects (Podkalicka and Campbell, 2010, Spurgeon et al., 2009), this paper explains the rationale for a multi-layered, complex methodology, the methods being used and the longer-term vision of outcomes for this type of collaboration involving a variety of shareable as well as “broadcast-able” digital content as tools in community communication strategy