Pacific people's wellbeing - the path to equitable outcomes webinar

Te Hiringa Mahara and Le Va co-hosted a webinar on supporting Pacific people's wellbeing in Aotearoa. The webinar shared and expanded on the findings of our Pacific wellbeing report which was released in May 2024.

The report brought together an assessment of Pacific peoples mental health and wellbeing, and insights from our engagement with Pacific leaders and communities. There are significant challenges faced by Pacific peoples in Aotearoa to realise their wellbeing, and we highlight what Pacific people told us is important to supporting their mental health and wellbeing.

Matt Bloomer, Principal Advisor, drew on the report findings, focued on understanding how we can better support Pacific wellbeing by understanding and supporting the ambitions and needs of Pacific families. He shared examples of successful community and government initiatives that have demonstrated positive outcomes. 

Le Va Chief Executive Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave shared insights from her organisation, with a particular focus on what they have learned about reaching and supporting Pacific young people. She also talked about how we can better work with young people to reduce the impacts of trauma and violence on future wellbeing. 

The session was chaired by Dr Ella Cullen, Director Wellbeing System Leadership and Insights, Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

Webinar resources: Pacific people's wellbeing outcomes webinar presentation (by Matt Bloomer) (PDF 1.1MB)

Speaker details 

Matt Bloomer is a Principal Advisor in the Wellbeing System Leadership team at Te Hiringa Mahara, and lead author of the Pacific wellbeing report. Matt has extensive health and social policy experience across government and non-government organisations, in Aotearoa and the United Kingdom. He has a BCA, BAHons.

Denise Kingi-‘Ulu’ave is a registered clinical psychologist of Tongan descent and the Chief Executive of Le Va, a national non-government primary prevention organisation. She has an extensive background in the Dept of Justice, primary and secondary mental health services, supervising staff and portfolio management experience. Denise has led the design and development of two national suicide prevention programmes funded by the Ministry of Health: FLO: Pasifika for Life and LifeKeepers. Denise is a former member of the Suicide Prevention Mortality Review Committee; she currently Chairs a network of Pasifika psychologists called Pasifikology and is a member of the Mental Health reference group for the Abuse in Care, Royal Commission of Inquiry and the Psychology Professional Advisory Forum. She has a MA (Hons) and PGDipClinPsych.