Well being

Well-being and good health are fundamental for a productive workforce and for enjoying life and social interaction: poor health and social outcomes often correlate to poor economic status. The consultation process set out to gather women's views on a range of health and social issues, proposed solutions and successful initiatives. Women aged 41-50 significantly influenced the overall outcome of the consultation process. This age group accounted for approximately 60 per cent of the responses identifying well-being issues and 81 per cent of the responses identifying strategies to enhance women's well-being.  

Issues

A broad range of health and other social issues as well as economic, personal, and structural or societal issues were canvassed. The issues identified here are priority issues that were supported by the greatest numbers of contributors. Priority issues for specific groups of women are identified in the following section. Economic issues raised have been reported in the earlier section on economic sustainability.

Health issues

• mental health
• sexual and reproductive health
• protecting all women's right to make independent health care choices, including medication decisions, and identifying the relationship of this with a perceived lack of observance of health ethics by some health professionals
• a full assessment of adverse environmental impacts on health.

Other social issues

• addressing New Zealand's high incidence of family violence, and keeping women safe from all forms of harm
• improving access to affordable and quality housing
• improving access to support through the justice system, with particular reference to women's access to legal aid
• improving participation and achievement in all levels of education
• improving access to employment opportunities
• providing greater levels of support, including social and financial support, to single mothers.

Personal issues

• significant numbers of women having poor life and parenting skills, which was believed to be an inherited issue, arising from intergenerational cycles of disadvantage
• low levels of self-esteem
• a lack of identity, which was closely linked to the erosion of some women's cultural base.

Structural or societal issues

• the perception that for women, New Zealand can be an exclusive rather than an inclusive society
• a lack of recognition of the diversity of women
• protecting women's human rights
• improving information about, and access to, resources and services available to support women
• women, including the specific groups of women, need engagement with government.

back to top

Government and community solutions

Contributors were asked to identify actions that the government and the community could take to address women's well-being. Actions identified for these priority issues are outlined below.

Mental health

• inclusion of gender analysis in the development of mental health policy, and delivery of gender sensitive mental health services
• educating service providers on how to interact with people with intellectual disabilities
• provision for support for caregivers of the mentally unwell.

Sexual and reproductive health

• gender sensitive service delivery
• lowering the age for free breast screening
• establishing a National Breast Feeding Committee to develop and implement a breast feeding strategy
• extended hospital stays for maternity patients
• ensuring consistency of sexuality education in schools by developing agreed standards for sexuality education and initiating Education Review Office reviews of sexuality education
• publicly funded media campaigns on sexual and reproductive health
• free sexual health services for youth, including free condoms
• continuing implementation of the Gisborne Cervical Screening Inquiry Report recommendations
• free screening for sexually transmitted infections
• legislation to resolve issues of foetal alcohol syndrome
• amending the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 to streamline certification procedures
• retaining laws against prostitution
• eliminating any practices of genital mutilation in New Zealand.

Choice of medication and ethics

• implementing the Code of Rights, particularly in relation to informed consent.

Family violence

• resourcing the implementation of domestic violence guidelines for early intervention health services
• increasing resources to Women's Refuge and Rape Crisis and increasing support for women leaving situations of domestic violence
• ensuring the implementation and monitoring of Te Rito: New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy
• encouraging more balanced media reporting about violence against women. Particular reference was made to media coverage of a homicide that was characterised as 'a botched sex attack'
• repealing section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 (domestic discipline of children).

Housing

• developing a policy to address secure and adequate housing for older people and to plan for changes in housing supply requirements due to an ageing population
• support for women facing eviction through the Tenancy Tribunal
• assistance for low-income earners to enable single women to achieve home ownership through access to co-operative housing schemes
• reintroducing the Advance for Major Home Repairs programme
• investigating the introduction of a home equity conversion scheme to provide superannuitants access to low interest loans to maintain their properties
• reviewing the criteria for access to state houses.

Access to the justice system

• acting on the Law Commission's recommendations in Women's Access to Legal Services (1999)
• providing easier access to legal aid for civil matters.

Parenting and life skills

• implementing a positive parenting information campaign, in conjunction with repealing section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 (domestic discipline of children)
• funding parenting and life skills programmes
• increasing funding to community organisations that provide parenting support
• continuing education for pregnant teenagers.

Human rights

• human rights education through the compulsory schooling sector
• extension of the Human Rights Act 1993 to include gender identity as a grounds against which discrimination is prohibited
• establishing an Equity Commission alongside the Human Rights Commission.

Access to services and resources

• improving the quality and accessibility of information about services available to support women. 

back to top

Successful initiatives

In addition to a wide range of initiatives, successful services, programmes and providers included:

• Whānau-Toko-I-te-Ora and Mahi-a-Whānau delivered by the Māori Women's Welfare League
• PACIFICA
• Shakti
• Salvation Army
• Project K mentoring
• Zonta
• Life Education Trust
• Angel Fund
• Women's Refuge
• Women's Resource Centres
• YWCA
• Wellington People's Centre
• unions, including the NZEI, PPTA and NZCTU
• Schools for teenage parents
• School's Out, a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender programme run at Wellington High
• Outward Bound
• Age Concern's elder abuse and home visiting programmes
• Marching Grannies
• Older Women's Network
• Agender NZ, a national support group for transgender people
• Eugene Moore's training for the Army, NZ Customs Service, Police and Australian Military Forces, aimed at overcoming homophobia and transphobia of staff in those organisations
• DARE life education
• Family Start
• PAFT
• Birthright and SWAP, which offer family camps at low cost
• Plunket
• pilot project on the West Coast providing telephone access to trained nurses for medical emergencies
• breast and cervical screening
• Sisters in Health in Auckland
• ARLA, which provides literacy and other learning skills to assist people with obtaining driver licences.

back to top