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Objectives. To document and explore the experience of migrant care workers providing health and social care to the elderly in institutional care settings and in the homes of the elderly in the community in New Zealand with a particular focus on the affective components of care work. Design. This qualitative study involved conducting face-to-face, open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 29 migrant care workers in the eldercare sector in the cities of Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand. Participants were recruited through various agencies focusing on aged care and engaged with migrant eldercare workers and snowballing through participant referral. Sample size was determined when saturation was reached. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, themes were identified and then analysed drawing on a body of theoretical work in the fields of emotional anthropology and moral geography and the international empirical literature addressing migrant eldercare workers. Results. As with the international research in this field we found that these workers were vulnerable to exploitation, the workforce is largely feminised and stereotypical understandings of racial groups and national characteristics informed recruitment and the workplace experience. Here attributing gradients of affect to particular migrant groups in the workforce was the main mechanism employed to establish worker worth and difference. Identifying with these gradients of affect enabled these eldercare workers to demonstrate that they met the moral and ethical requirements of permanent residency and ultimately citizenship. Eldercare workers in the home were vulnerable to ‘blurred emotional boundaries’ and care recipient demand for greater emotional commitment. The migrant eldercare workers in this study all shared vulnerable residential status and many feared they would never obtain permanent residency or citizenship. All had family who remained in the Philippines and towards whom they had an obligation to substitute care support. Conclusion. Central to understanding how this labour force issue is experienced by both caregivers and the elderly is the notion ofsubjective proximityand how emotional and moral trajectories serve to mediate the connection between the eldercare worker and workplace, the Filipino migrant eldercare relationship with employers, agencies and institutions; and, the transnational nature of this mobility and social and actual citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's view on the need of public consultation, education, and awareness on the secondary use of the health data and possible commercialization of health data system in New Zealand.

Outdoor nature-based recreation practices provide a window on human/non-human relationships in New Zealand society and for some new immigrants these relationships metaphorically parallel their settlement experiences. This paper draws on the qualitative component of a mixed method study conducted in New Zealand, which focused on participation in outdoor nature-based recreation in national and regional parks. Recent immigrants in New Zealand bring with them environmental values and expectations of what recreational participation in outdoor nature-based settings should and might entail. Recent migrant perceptions of these natural habitats throw into relief assumed givens about the role of national parks and the social and cultural function that these institutions have fulfilled since their inception in New Zealand society. Our research demonstrates that being able to locate one’s self in nature-based settings is central to migrant integration, yet for a significant group of immigrants this is not always possible in New Zealand. This research raises a number of important questions about the nature of leisure and the politics of the environment in New Zealand. In multicultural New Zealand outdoor nature-based recreation, those who participate and those who do not, what they see and what it means to them provides a window on contemporary societal, environmental and cultural politics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on technologies for assisting conception and considers how normative notions of conception and family formation have informed the rejection, incorporation and adaptation of technologies and their regulation in New Zealand. Drawing on a textual analysis of primary written materials and secondary sources generated between 1965 and 2004, the paper reveals how these technologies help various groups in New Zealand society make explicit their understandings of relatedness, identity and social and cultural belonging. Whilst biological/genetic connection and social connections inform understandings of kinship, reproduction, parenthood and social structure for many New Zealanders, the boundaries between the biological and social are often blurred and precedence of one over the other is very much context dependent. The incorporation of the new reproductive technologies has been an inherently politicised process, with barriers to access to these technologies emerging in relation to ethnic identity and race, sexuality, socioeconomic status, gender, and marital status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States immigration and intercountry adoption policies and practice are compared with those of Canada and New Zealand. In the post World War II period, both the United States and Canada have been significant as receiving countries for intercountry adoptees, while New Zealand has proportionately been one of the least significant receiving countries in the West. Intercountry adoptions were addressed in legislation and incorporated into immigration criteria and procedures in the immediate post war period in response to the displaced children of Europe. The early immigration legislation for the migration of children for adoption tended to be reactive and temporary. By the 1970s, there was an increased demand for intercountry adoption, and permanent provisions were established in immigration legislation and criteria. Despite the endorsement of this practice through immigration policy, no national policy corollary that addressed the welfare of these children emerged in the United States or Canada. In contrast, in New Zealand, immigration policy and criteria has been shaped by a national policy on intercountry adoption as a practice since the 1960s. This article traces the development of immigration policy and intercountry adoption policy and practice in all three countries. It is argued that ultimately, with respect to policy priorities and practice, all three countries have prioritized national needs and well being over the 'needs and welfare' of child migrants for adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe risk and protective factors for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced over a 1.5-year period among both frontline and “non-traditional” responders to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand.Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal survey administered to Christchurch workers with referents from the city of Hamilton at 6, 12 and 18 months after the 2011 earthquake. Potential risk and protective determinants were assessed by questionnaire items at baseline and over time, the outcome being PTSD as assessed by the PTSD Checklist-Civilian version. A longitudinal latent class analysis identified groups with similar trajectories of PTSD.Findings A total of 226 individuals, 140 (26 per cent) from Christchurch and 86 (16 per cent) from Hamilton, participated at baseline, 180 at 12 and 123 at 18 months, non-traditional responders forming the largest single group. Two latent classes emerged, with PTSD (21 per cent) and without PTSD (79 per cent), with little change over the 18-month period. Class membership was predicted by high scores in the Social Support and Impact of Events scale items, Health-related Quality of Life scores being protective. PTSD scores indicative of distress were found in females, and predicted by burnout risk, behavioural disengagement and venting.Practical implications Non-traditional responders should be screened for PTSD. Social support should be considered with the promotion of adaptive coping mechanisms.Originality/value The strength was longitudinal follow-up over an 18-month period, with demonstration of how the potential determinants influenced the course of PTSD over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The role of first responders in mitigating the effects of earthquakes is vital. Unlike other disasters, earthquakes are not single events, and exposure to dangerous and trauma-inducing events may be ongoing. Understanding how first responders cope in the face of such conditions is important, for both their own well-being as well as the general public whom they serve. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approach Using questionnaires, this study measured posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychological resilience, and reactive coping styles in a sample of first responders active during the 2011 Canterbury earthquake in New Zealand.Findings The prevalence of PTSD was similar to that reported in the literature. Psychological resilience, but not disaster exposure, was found to be associated with PTSD. Maladaptive coping strategies best predicted resiliency, but there were significant gender differences.Originality/value These findings can inform those managing first responder disaster workers through the consideration of preventive and treatment interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased use of information technology in health care allows researchers to generate data on rates of medication use among population groups, raising questions as to whether these rates are too high or too low. This paper presents findings from a study of records of all prescription medication dispensed in one New Zealand region (Te Tāirawhiti) over a one year period. The study examined patterns of psychotropic medication use amongst older people, by age, gender, ethnicity and socio-economic position. It concludes that the chances of being defined as needing psychotropic medication, that is, of being 'medicalised', are not evenly spread through the elderly population. Gender, age and ethnicity impacted significantly on whether prescriptions were received. Our results suggest the need for a nuanced understanding of the medicalisation of unhappiness and deviant behaviour amongst the elderly which takes into account barriers to treatment for some social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential negative environmental impact of immigration has been raised in a number of receiving countries. In New Zealand there has been a debate questioning whether or not immigrants share the same environmental values as native-born residents. This article reports on a study of the environmental values of immigrants and native-born residents of New Zealand (n = 427). The research employed a survey instrument known as the New Environmental Paradigm to examine the environmental worldviews of the subjects. The informing literature for the study is drawn from postmaterialist and social exclusion theory, and the study also considers the role of acculturation in modifying environmental attitudes. The main finding of the study is that there was no significant difference in the environmental worldviews of immigrants and native-born New Zealanders. Both groups held mildly ecocentric views. The level of immigrants’ acculturation was found to be unrelated to their environmental attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Although antibiotic use in the community is a significant contributor to resistance, little is known about social patterns of use. This study aimed to explore the use of antibiotics by age, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status and rurality. Methods Data were obtained on all medicines dispensed to ambulatory patients in one isolated town for a year, and data on antibiotics are presented in this paper. Demographic details were obtained from pharmacy records or by matching to a national patient dataset. Results During the study year, 51% of the population received a prescription for one or more antibiotics, and on average people in the region received 10.15 defined daily doses (DDDs). Prevalence of use was higher for females (ratio, 1.18), and for young people (under 25) and the elderly (75 and over), and the amount in DDDs/person/year broadly followed this pattern. Māori (indigenous New Zealanders) were less likely to receive a prescription (48% of the population) than non-Māori (55%) and received smaller quantities on average. Rural Māori, including rural Māori children, received few prescriptions and low quantities of antibiotics compared with other population groups. Conclusions The level of antibiotic use in the general population is high, despite campaigns to try to reduce unnecessary use. The prevalence of acute rheumatic fever is high amongst rural Māori, and consequently treatment guidelines recommend prophylactic use of antibiotics for sore throat in this population. This makes the comparatively very low level of use of antibiotics amongst rural Māori children very concerning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]