Opioid substitution treatment and disasters: perspectives from Aotearoa New Zealand

In Aotearoa New Zealand, disaster risk management (DRM) aspires to protect the lives and livelihoods of people and places. It does this by encouraging people and communities to be disaster ready, while ensuring reduction of potential and actual harm from a disaster, responding immediately and directly following a disaster, and recovering so that there is ongoing regeneration and resiliency for the people and communities impacted by a disaster

No-man's Land: Adoption Storied Through the Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The Aotearoa/New Zealand Adoption Act 1955 legislated and governed adoption practices from 1955 to 1985. Through an exploration of the historical, cultural and social assumptions underlying the Adoption Act 1955, this article questions how the social power relations complicit with adoption legislation and policy produce and reproduce subject positions for adoptees. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 12 adoptees from throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. The researchers found the legal constitution of adoptees produces them as legitimate; however, they remain 'other' through dominant discourses of heteronormative blood kinship that reiterates their illegitimacy. The legal fiction of their legitimacy as if born to failed to secure them space within normative narratives of kinship and compromised adoptees' ability to take up responsibility as neoliberal citizens. Current New Zealand debate on adoption fails to take account of the experience of adoptees, focusing instead on the rights of married couples, including same-sex couples, to continue practices of adoption. Our analysis informs the critical importance of listening to how adoptees experience repeated exclusions and enduring loss represented by the metaphor of no-man's land

Women’s Experiences of Medical Miss-Diagnosis: How does gender matter in healthcare settings?

Medical misdiagnosis for women continues to be a significant problem, leading to disparate health outcomes. To understand how women make sense of experiences of medical misdiagnosis, eight women from Aotearoa/ New Zealand were interviewed about misdiagnosis of conditions that equally affect female and male bodies. This work was guided by feminist principles and used narrative analysis to develop the following three themes: (1) Contradictory dialogues: doctor as expert or not? (2) Self-advocacy in the misdiagnosis experience; and (3) Not taken seriously in healthcare settings: it’s all in your head. Supported by previous work, our findings assert that women are treated poorly in healthcare settings with detrimental outcomes for them and their wider community. Reasons for this include female bodies being excluded from medical research, so that little is known about how illnesses present in female bodies, or how they affect women. Problematically, knowledge founded on male bodies is used to diagnose conditions in women. These biases perpetuate gender stereotypes and preconceived beliefs about women. Unexplained symptoms are considered ‘made up’ or are blamed on women’s mental well- being. Women are therefore not always considered credible symptom reporters and may be dismissed and ignored by healthcare professionals

Assisted dying in the Aotearoa New Zealand media: a critical discourse analysis

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Stigma and disaster risk reduction among vulnerable groups: Considering people receiving opioid substitution treatment

© 2020 This work explores the ways in which stigma influences how people engage with disaster risk reduction. It specifically addresses the experiences and perceptions of stigma for people who receive Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST), a successful harm reduction strategy that reduces illicit drug use, risk of overdose and criminal activity. Unfortunately, while receiving OST people endure stigma because of their perceived or assumed history of drug use, which positions them as socially deviant and unacceptable. During a disaster or emergency, forms of social stigma from health and emergency management personnel have implications for access to treatment such as OST. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 21 people receiving OST from services in four major cities in Aotearoa New Zealand, an interpretive analysis was applied to better understand how stigma matters to their lived experience. Four key themes, namely “Experiences of stigma”, “Discrimination from health professionals”, and “Disasters and emergency management” and “Support within disaster contexts” were identified in their talk. We conclude that it is vital that medications and other necessary treatments are made accessible to those who need them to maintain health and wellbeing. It is important to be aware that stigmatising beliefs manifest in disaster-response settings which have consequences for people who are already more vulnerable than others. Therefore we suggest that appropriate education and training be provided

Get prepared for an emergency: An infographic

© The Author(s) 2017. Effective preparedness messages increase human capacity to prepare, respond and minimise harm during an emergency. The purpose of this study was to highlight the development of a pictorial infographic resource for earthquake and other emergencies for older people, people with mobility issues and people with literacy concerns in Aotearoa/New Zealand. A case study methodology was used to enable an in-depth description of the processes involved in designing, developing and disseminating the infographic. Case studies provide a medium to represent communitysituated knowledge and expertise. They value context, specificity and lived experience. The second two authors drove the initiative, and project managed the production of the infographic. The first author conducted a semi-structured interview with the other two authors to garner details of the process. This interview was transcribed and the case study outline was crafted. The authors went on to produce this paper collectively. The outcomes of this case study include recommending that a multidisciplinary approach be used to engage a range of stakeholders, to produce suitable preparedness messages for a range of audiences. Designing preparedness resources necessitates an iterative method and collective decision-making by relevant stakeholders. International best-practice guidelines provide evidence to ensure suitable resources are produced and gaps in knowledge identified, so that emergency preparedness is accessible for all

‘Living with the floods’: the influence of relational and cognitive capital on disaster risk management capacities in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka

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Balancing act: The relentless tyranny of monitoring and evaluating body image concerns

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Adoptee Activism: I Am Not Your ‘Child for All Purposes’

Closed adoption emerged in the mid-20th century as a socio-legal intervention to address ‘problems’ with the care of children, ex-nuptial births, and couples experiencing infertility. Governing adoption practices is the Adoption Act 1955, which is still in effect in Aotearoa New Zealand, despite a general consensus that it is out of step with contemporary thinking and social mores. As part of current efforts to reform this law, adult adoptees have taken up the challenge of speaking out about the effects of closed stranger adoption and what needs to change. This article explores three adoptee scholars’ experiences of, and reflections upon, their activism, emphasising the unique ways in which being subject to adoption complicates and constrains action. Adoptees’ struggles for recognition are somewhat perpetuated rather than resolved through activism, evidencing the self- reinforcing power of the institution of adoption

Get prepared: Discourse for the privileged?

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