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Accessing healthcare during a disaster matters for the well-being of people and communities. This article explores healthcare messaging about General Practitioner (GP) services for non-COVID-19 health concerns during the Level 4 lockdown in Te Papaioea (Palmerston North), Aotearoa New Zealand. Messaging from Government, media and local GP clinics were analysed to understand how people were advised to seek care for non-COVID-19 health concerns. We found inconsistencies in these communications, ranging from messages to not attend healthcare services because of possible COVID-19 surges, to messages with vague, or lack of, information. Government messages did include advice for seeking general healthcare, but this was largely rendered invisible due to the focus on ‘staying home, saving lives’. Media messaging was similarly influenced by these Government directives. Few GP clinics had websites, and few provided information about accessing general healthcare services. Clinics also lacked up-to-date telephone messages about seeking healthcare for non-COVID-19 symptoms and illnesses. All three sources neglected the cultural, social and contextual diversity of the local audience. We recommend that communication during disasters should be clear, concise and consistent. Further, GPs should be supported to have websites and telecommunication platforms. All communications should be inclusive and aim to reach diverse audiences.

Food poverty, or household food insecurity, has been a growing phenomenon in high-income countries as a result of neoliberal reforms. In this paper, we advance the idea of a noncommercial food syst...

The aim of this study was to explore health perceptions and priorities. Using a photo elicitation method, participants (N=50) were asked to answer the question: ‘What does it mean to choose health’. Data (original photographs, accompanied by captions) were collected online. We generated and interpreted the main themes associated with common perceptions of health and health-related priorities using polytextual thematic analysis. The health perception themes were: health as a ‘long journey’; health as keeping balance; health as self-acceptance. The main health-related priorities were: enjoyment of activities that are a part of a healthy lifestyle; planning time for rest; need for contact with nature, and supportive relationships. Participants’ reports differed in terms of how Covid-19 was reflected in their perceptions of health behaviours. The findings can support the development of future health interventions by providing evidence for individual health perceptions and priorities.

Gender is performative and embodied. This is especially apparent when we consider activities such as male bodybuilding, through which men pursue very muscular, hyper-masculine bodies. In this artic...

The internet is a knowledge technology and market place, ingrained in everyday social life, which provides an avenue to examine social and gendered relationships. This paper examines a part...

This article considers relationships and intersections between place, community and foodscapes. We present a case study of the making of a foodscape in The Whau, a local authority area of Auckland,...

Currently not all New Zealand citizens are able to access sufficient food to meet their dietary needs for an active healthy life. Taking a community psychology orientation broadens the focus beyond individual experiences of insufficient food to the wider social context, including the reorganizing of resources in a more equitable manner. Based on our research we recommend a Universal Fresh Food Supply as a bold and innovative solution to food insecurity that is congruent with both community psychology values and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero hunger.

The COVID-19 crisis brought about increased surveillance, restrictions on movement, loss of freedoms, and the shutdown of ‘normal’ everyday life in Aotearoa New Zealand. Complex interplays of power, choice, and coercion in relation to people ceding their privacy and freedom to the state in return for the potential of health and economic security were brought to the fore. This chapter explores these dialectical tensions around risks and [in]securities in civil society using the multi-faceted lens offered by Assemblage Theory, and concepts of the Social Contract. The ‘Psycurity Accord’ offers an explanatory tool for understanding trade-offs between various risks and (in)securities, and issues of privacy and freedom. With references to different news updates regarding the evolving crisis, we consider how trade-offs around risks and [in]securities are never fixed and are re-assembled as new events occur, and the situation evolves. New orders of authority emerge from (re)alignments of different interest groups and (re)inscriptions around risk, security, freedom, and privacy.

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This article extends our understanding of the everyday practices of pharmaceuticalisation through an examination of moral concerns over medication practices in the household. Moral concerns of responsibility and discipline in relation to pharmaceutical consumption have been identified, such as passive or active medication practices, and adherence to orthodox or unorthodox accounts. This paper further delineates dimensions of the moral evaluations of pharmaceuticals. In 2010 and 2011 data were collected from 55 households across New Zealand and data collection techniques, such as photo- and diary-elicitation interviews, allowed the participants to develop and articulate reflective stories of the moral meaning of pharmaceuticals. Four repertoires were identified: a disordering society repertoire where pharmaceuticals evoke a society in an unnatural state; a disordering self repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a moral failing of the individual; a disordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify a threat to one's physical or mental equilibrium; a re-ordering substances repertoire where pharmaceuticals signify the restoration of function. The research demonstrated that the dichotomies of orthodox/unorthodox and compliance/resistance do not adequately capture how medications are used and understood in everyday practice. Attitudes change according to why pharmaceuticals are taken and who is taking them, their impacts on social relationships, and different views on the social or natural production of disease, the power of the pharmaceutical industry, and the role of health experts. Pharmaceuticals are tied to our identity, what we want to show of ourselves, and what sort of world we see ourselves living in. The ordering and disordering understandings of pharmaceuticals intersect with forms of pharmaceuticalised governance, where conduct is governed through pharmaceutical routines, and where self-responsibility entails following the prescription of other agents. Pharmaceuticals symbolise forms of governance with different sets of roles and responsibilities.

Background: Over recent decades, society has been facing different social, political, and economic challenges that are changing classical consumption dynamics towards more sustainable practices, mostly in the field of food consumption. In particular, alternative food networks are enabling new food consumption models inspired by principles of participation and sustainability. The aim of this study was to explore how community supported agriculture farms create value for sustainability practices from both farmer and consumer perspectives in order to find new levers to engage consumers towards pursuing better food consumption models. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted following focused ethnography principles. Results: The results show that community supported agriculture is a complex concept based on the active participation of consumers as carers of economic, social, and environmental values. These values are all strongly connected, and together contribute to create an ecosystem where sustainable food practices can be promoted through a &ldquo, learning by doing&rdquo, process. Conclusions: This research offers new ways to re-connect and collaborate with consumers in the era of sustainable food consumption.

Strength and femininity have in many ways been culturally constructed as two mutually exclusive phenomena. This paper considers how Instagram facilitates female body objectification and surveillance through an examination of female bodybuilders whose muscular bodies represent both resistance against and conformity to dominant cultural notions around women as fragile, weak, and subservient. We reveal how surveillance over the bodies of female bodybuilders on Instagram functions to reposition them as more (hetero)normatively feminine by encouraging them to present bodies which are ornamented, sexualized, and passive. We also reveal how female bodybuilders practise self-surveillance on Instagram by simultaneously resisting and conforming to this surveillance. In the process, these women manage to redefine femininity for themselves in ways which problematize dualistic notions around strength and femininity.

The immigrant population in New Zealand is growing dramatically, giving those arriving on work visas, student visas and visitor visas no guaranteed right to remain as well as restrictions to social resources such as health care. [...]

Neoliberal narratives dominate constructions of poverty. The dearth of alternative legitimizing narratives effectively silences the lived experiences of issues such as food insecurity. In conjunction with hegemonic silencing, feelings of shame and personal inadequacy further drive these experiences from public view. People living with poverty learn to hide their everyday realities from public scrutiny and engage in social practices in an effort to reduce experiences of stigma, oppression, and social rejection. As part of a larger study into food and poverty, this paper draws on interviews with five householders who source and provide food for their respective families. In doing so, it documents how lived experiences of food scarcity bring the often hidden aspects of marginalized lives into view. Householders utilize practices of passing and food rationing in order to navigate the shame and moral accusations associated with poverty.

Qualitative research in psychology, although becoming more visible and growing in stature, continues to remain a minority endeavor within the discipline (Gough & Lyons 2016; Harper 2012; Ponterotto...

Poverty brings insecurity and chaos into the home, forcing families to develop strategies for navigating the difficulties of food insecurity. We document how one household, the Kopa family, responds to poverty in ad hoc and agentive ways that assist and hinder their attempts to keep themselves fed. This study is based on a series of eight qualitative interviews with family members, including photo-elicitation and go-along techniques, as well as extensive field notes from more casual research interactions such as shared meals. Our analysis demonstrates how food insecurity shapes this family’s culturally patterned social practices surrounding the procurement, consumption, and sharing of food.

We examine how critical health psychology developed in New Zealand, taking an historical perspective to document important influences. We discuss how academic appointments created a confluence of critical researchers at Massey University, how interest in health psychology arose and expanded, how the critical turn eventuated and how connections, both local and international, were important in building and sustaining these developments. We discuss the evolution of teaching a critical health psychology training programme, describe the research agendas and professional activities of academic staff involved and how this sustains the critical agenda. We close with some reflections on progress and attainment.

An exploration of rongoā Māori (a system of Māori healing based on Māori cultural traditions) was conducted to ascertain the cultural values and beliefs of Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa/New Zealand, that are related to Māori healing. A Kaupapa Māori approach utilising Māori cultural concepts throughout the research process guided the overall study design. Semi-structured narrative interviews were conducted in 2009 and 2010 with 17 rongoā Māori healers. The rourou Māori method of data analysis, a 3-step process created specifically for this project, was employed to analyse healers’ talk about the underlying concepts of rongoā Māori healing. Two key topics emerged: concepts of healing, and the focus of healing. The importance of acknowledging Māori cultural values and beliefs inherent within rongoā Māori healing concepts and the focus of healing is discussed.

© 2017, © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The potential for harms from adverse drug reactions (ADR) constitutes a critical patient safety and public health challenge, especially with increased medication usage as populations age. The research reported here explores explanations for a sudden increase in ADR reporting in New Zealand after a new formulation of a medication to treat hypothyroidism, Eltroxin® (levothyroxine), was phased in. The formulation was adjudged to be bioequivalent to the old formulation, yet following its introduction, a sharp increase in the reporting of adverse reactions to this drug occurred. The paper analyses public engagement and the role of print media coverage, press releases and minutes of meetings of relevant agencies in order to describe the unfolding of this health controversy. Early interpretations of the sharp increase in reporting of reactions explained it as an outcome of a combination of factors, including a mistrust of state drug subsidising agencies and media attention that provoked anxiety in this vulnerable population. This paper offers an alternative explanation arguing that, as adverse drug reactions are known to be significantly underreported, the Eltroxin® ‘health scare’ illustrates enhanced pharmacovigilance triggered by the interaction between patients and the media. The Eltroxin® controversy is an illustrative case example of the amplification of ADR reporting by patients following increased media attention in the context of a low consumer reporting environment. The case of Eltroxin® indicates that drug safety can be enhanced by actively using media sources and by encouraging patient engagement and reporting of ADRs.

Knowledge about the born-still is the product of multiple and conflicting legal, social, political, religious and medical interpretations. Yet despite their uncertain status, the born-still exist amongst us. Social networks reveal their presence as they progressively escape from social sequestration within family and support groups. Drawing on notions of the intersubjective self and adopting Klass’s work on inner representations for the deceased, this paper theorises how the born-still retain a social presence by means of their survivors’ internalised relationships with them. Analysis of five Facebook memorial sites created by survivors found substantial support for Klass’s theory indicating that survivors were interacting with their inner representations of the child. Some survivors were also found to have developed enduring relationships to the born-still before their death. Importantly, the identities of survivors and the born-still, as well as relationships between them, were reinforced by ong...

Nutritional science has assumed a fundamental importance in shaping food meanings and practices in the developed world. This study critically analysed the content of one weekly nutrition column written by a nutritional expert in a popular New Zealand magazine, from a social constructionist perspective, to investigate how nutritional advice constructs food, food practices and eaters. The analysis identified a range of ways in which the nutrition information communicated in the articles was potentially problematic for readers. The articles advocated eating for health with recommendations based on nutritional science, but depicted nutritional information as inconclusive, changeable and open to interpretation. Fear-based messages were used to motivate making 'healthy' food choices, through linking 'unhealthy' food choices with fatness and chronic ill health. Unhealthy foods were portrayed as more enjoyable than healthy foods, social occasions involving food were constructed as problematic, and exercise was defined only as a way to negate food consumption. Healthy eating was portrayed as a matter of personal choice, obscuring the situational factors that impact on food choice and health. We conclude that the nutritional advice analysed in this study constructs a way of understanding food that, if internalised by eaters, may evoke anxiety, confusion and dissatisfaction around food and eating.

Cityscapes comprise intense repositories for socio-economic interactions, including those surrounding medicinal products. This raises issues of pharmaceuticalisation, involving the construction of a range of human conditions as targets for pharmaceutical interventions. Employing the metaphoric figure of the flâneur, we traverse the New Zealand cityscape, interrogating the mediation and emplacement of various medicinal products within thoroughfares, commercial sites and domestic dwellings. We demonstrate the pharmaceuticalised commodification of the city and interpolation of urbanites as citizen-consumers.

This chapter explores precariat practices in the construction of an enclave of care, where they document how marginalised groups can respond to adversity through a collective initiative. It considers how a community meal not only provides a constant, reliable source of food, but also provides a judgement-free space for members of the precariat that affords respite from the pressures associated with the broader landscape of despair. The chapter shows how, within increasingly penal and punitive everyday landscapes, members of the precariat co-create an enclave of care where they can gain respite, dignity, a sense of belonging and sustenance. Contemporary landscapes of despair intensify the need for access to spaces in which members of the precariat can find basic resources such as food as well as respite, understanding and support. The creation of a fleeting space of respite generates the sense of purpose, identity and citizenship crucial for mental well-being.

Efforts to address homelessness in New Zealand are marked by competing discourses that construct it as a housing issue, or more radically, as an issue of social exclusion. This paper presents a case study that illustrates the difficulties of reconciling these discourses when framing homelessness policy. Research was conducted with a national organisation involved in advocating to the New Zealand government on homelessness policy. Members of this group participated in focus groups exploring the meanings of home, homelessness and their advocacy work. The paper traces the challenges presented to the politics of social action by recognising homelessness as an issue of social exclusion, but needing to frame it as an issue of housing to effect policy change. It argues that social activist groups must routinely make pragmatic and strategic compromises that challenge the integrity of their ideological positions and their conceptual understandings, and develop group practices that allow them to resolve the tension...

We aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of public views and ways of talking about antibiotics. Four focus groups were held with members of the public. In addition, 39 households were recruited and interviews, diaries of medicine taking, diaries of any contact with medication were used to explore understanding and use of medication. Discussions related to antibiotics were identified and analyzed. Participants in this study were worried about adverse effects of antibiotics, particularly for recurrent infections. Some were concerned that antibiotics upset the body’s “balance”, and many used strategies to try to prevent and treat infections without antibiotics. They rarely used military metaphors about infection (e.g., describing bacteria as invading armies) but instead spoke of clearing infections. They had little understanding of the concept of antibiotic resistance but they thought that over-using antibiotics was unwise because it would reduce their future effectiveness. Previous studies tend to focus on problems such as lack of knowledge, or belief in the curative powers of antibiotics for viral illness, and neglect the concerns that people have about antibiotics, and the fact that many people try to avoid them. We suggest that these concerns about antibiotics form a resource for educating patients, for health promotion and social marketing strategies.

Socioeconomic inequalities are increasing in many OECD countries, as are punitive welfare reforms that pathologise ‘the poor’. This article draws on the accounts of 100 families in Auckland to consider the impacts of increased social stratification and structural violence on their interactions with a government welfare agency. Each family was recruited through a food bank and was matched with a social worker who used a range of interview, mapping and drawing exercises to document their experiences of adversity over a one-year period. The analysis sheds new light on how institutionalised and abusive relations with these families manifest in spatially located urban interactions. It is argued that poverty is misrecognised at the institutional level and that this nurtures structural violence in service provision interactions.