Interesting Pieces of Research and Articles

Perpetual Guardian Philanthropy Report (2023)

Even with a tightening investment return outlook amid a prolonged economic slump and high inflation, the past year has brought heartening news for the charitable sector. The second annual Perpetual Guardian philanthropy report, released in line with the 2023 Philanthropy New Zealand conference, records total giving for the year to 30 June 2023 as $23.5 million, with key themes for giving being medical research, education, and social services, closely followed by the arts.

Read on

Aged care crisis being ignored in the election campaign (Sept 2023)

By Andrew Bevin, Newsroom 22 September 2023

Aged Care Association interim chief executive and former National Party MP Katherine Rich said the major parties want to talk about everything but aged care.

Rich, who served in Parliament between 1999 and 2008, said it was totally different from the 2022 election across the Tasman when Anthony Albanese was elected prime minister.

“We’ve got the same sort of issues and yet compared to political leaders in Australia, New Zealand’s political decision makers are just hiding under the duvet and hoping the large cohort of over 80s are somehow going to make alternative plans.”

Policy targeting 85-year-olds may not be a sexy election winner, but it’s a space that has serious implications for the wider healthcare sector.

“It ultimately affects everybody in the form of emergency departments under pressure, higher thresholds to get surgeries. Many of our hospitals are starting to look like retirement homes because there simply aren’t places in the community for them to go.”

Read on

School drop-out ‘crisis’: Youth employment agencies seeing increasingly younger people leaving school (Sept 2023)

By journalist Amy Wiggins, NZH 26 September 2023

Gaeleen Wilkie, manager of Taupō Pathways For Youth Employment, was gobsmacked when she received a call from the parent of a 12-year-old asking for help finding their child a job because she had stopped going to school.

She said both parents and schools could do more to keep kids in the education system.

“Maybe schools aren’t that good at joining the dots between what you learn at school and how [that’s] used in the real world, but also, parents just aren’t parenting and making the kids go.

“They’re not valuing education, and I don’t think they realise how much they’re shutting doors on their children.”

Read more  here.

Why allergies are on the increase around the world (Aug 2023)

From Afternoons, RNZ 8 August 2023
Allergies are on the rise worldwide because the human immune system is like a “Windows 95” that can’t be upgraded, a scientist says.
Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and associate professor of science and technology studies. When her father died from a bee sting, it set her on a path to investigate why allergies are proliferating and what medical science is doing to help. Read more here

Heatwaves and implications for our local population

How will heatwaves affect us and our local vulnerable populations? SociaLink has been looking at this and what we can do – read on.

Many of us may be thinking the heatwaves in the northern hemisphere won’t be as bad here. However for a number of reasons cities like Tauranga and Whakatane are predicted to be at high risk of more heatwaves and they can have serious consequences. With a strong El Nino weather pattern settling in, this coming summer is likely to be hot and dry for many areas. Furthermore, more frequent and intense hot extremes and less frequent and intense cold extremes are likely for Aotearoa New Zealand in the future.[1]

Read the full piece here

 

[1] Bodeker, G., Cullen, N., Katurji, M., McDonald, A., Morgenstern, O., Noone, D., Renwick, J., Revell, L. and Tait, A. (2022). Aotearoa New Zealand climate change projections guidance: Interpreting the latest IPCC WG1 report findings. Prepared for the Ministry for the Environment, Report number CR 501.

Older people experiencing vulnerability and multiple disadvantage in New Zealand (June 2023)

Older people experiencing vulnerability and multiple disadvantage in New Zealand uses the Integrated Data Infrastructure to understand the experiences and characteristics of people aged 65 and older in Aotearoa New Zealand. It measures the needs of older people exploring the domains of health, housing, finance, social connection, and access. Read more:

'Our tīpuna knew when to move' - The difficult conversations about managed retreat for Māori (May 2023)

After the devastating impact of land loss, there is an understandable reluctance among some Māori to give up the land they have left. But the changing climate will eventually inflict more pain on the most flood-prone places. Read more…

Moral injury: what happens when exhausted health workers can no longer provide the care they want for their patients? (2020)

Healthcare workers in New Zealand already face life-and-death decisions daily. But as multiple winter illnesses add pressure to a system already stretched by COVID, staff now also have to deal with daily abuse, acute staff shortages and unsafe working conditions. At times, they cannot provide the care they would like for their patients. Read more:

Shining the light on Child Poverty (May 2022)

Presentations by Alan Johnson, Hana Seddon and Max Rashbrooke for commentary on the 2022 Budget from a child poverty lens are now loaded to our website.

Alcohol marketing has crossed borders and entered the metaverse – how do we regulate the new digital risk? (May 2022)

The World Health Organization’s newly released report on regulating cross-border alcohol marketing raises the alarm for countries like Australia and New Zealand, given their light touch towards alcohol advertising. Read on….

Talking Matters (May 2022)

Building language-rich environments for babies in the first 1000 days.
Talking Matters partners with whānau, communities, practitioners, iwi and government to build and support language-rich environments for children.
A language-rich environment is vibrant and contains all the languages of a family, community or setting in spoken, written, cultural, gestural and artefactual form.
It is the space where children in their first thousand days of life can develop the communication skills they need to thrive as thinkers, talkers and readers.

Videos, Tupuna Parenting services, handouts, talking tips on the website.

A story from Radio NZ about Talking Matters
And another story.

Racism - what's your take on the issue? (June 2022)

This article by Anne Salmond puts another lens on Te Tiriti

Time to unteach ‘race’

From beginning to end, Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a non-racial agreement, writes Dame Anne Salmond, but it has been recast as a partnership between races, and that has provoked racist reactions. Read the whole article here.

 Last September the Commission launched a website that enabled everyday New Zealanders to share their personal stories of racism. It let people who hadn’t experienced racism or prejudice to hear from people who have.

The That’s Us campaign has so far reached more than 3 million people. See more: www.givenothing.co.nz

Why playing in nature is so good for kids (May 2022)

Celia Hogan runs a Bush Kindy and Bush School for families in Ōtautahi Christchurch, where there’s a long waiting list, and offers professional development training for teachers and parents on all things to do with nature.
With the growth of urbanisation and changes in our lifestyles, children are getting less outdoor play compared with previous generations. Read more about the work giving children easy and safe access to get to their local park.

Is the future of work here? (April 2022)

Hybrid work may overtake “working from home” or “flexible work” in our employment lexicon.

Hybrid work is the splitting of your work time between home and office. Offices may now require a reason to exist beyond providing a place to sit and work, something people have managed to do quite well from home over the last two years without losing precious time to a commute.
Read the whole article from The Bulletin.

'Making a difference': How recycled chip packets are helping Auckland's vulnerable (March 2022)

An Auckland-based organisation is helping the city’s most vulnerable people in the most unlikely of ways – with empty potato chip packets.

The Chip Packet Project (CPPNZ) was founded in September 2021 during lockdown, and was a spin-off of the UK-based organisation, Crisp Packet Project.

The organisation collects freshly-washed chip packets, or any foil-wrapped food item, before fusing them together with an iron to create a “survival sheet” for Aucklanders in need.
Read the whole article here.