Mental health organisation Te Kainga O Pa Taunga is preparing to host a primary care psychiatry workshop for frontline staff and volunteers, to tackle the issue of mental illness stigma in the Cook Islands and improve statistics.

Police, prison staff, teachers, health practitioners, religious leaders and anyone who works face-to-face with the community are welcome to register for the four-day course. 

Te Kainga O Pa Taunga chief executive officer Mereana Taikoko says attitudes towards mental illness put the issue on the backburner, with only the most severe 7 per cent of cases receiving the help they need. 

“The majority are out here in the community needing support,” says Taikoko. 

Help is needed for elders with dementia and their family caregivers who don’t take breaks for their own wellbeing. 

There are people who are stressed out but don’t identify it as a health issue, turning to substances like drugs and alcohol for relief, or suffering in silence. 

Te Kainga O Pa Taunga offers psychosocial rehabilitation, mental health awareness and education, an alcohol and drugs support group, counselling, and day service/respite care.

Taikoko calls on the government to help now rather than being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff when people become chronically ill. 

“We need to educate the decision and policy makers because they do not understand.” 

She says mental illness myths and stigma make funding difficult, and the NGO has struggled to stay afloat since its inception in 2004. 

Te Kainga O Pa Taunga has received support through the government’s Social Impact Fund in the past, but Taikoko says: “We’ve never had enough funding.” 

Though she is the CEO of the organisation, Taikoko is a volunteer, surviving off her New Zealand pension while carrying out her mental health advocacy and counselling. 

“We get dribs and drabs,” says Taikoko. “We ran housie for 15 years to raise money to renovate the clinic. When we had a lot more young people we could make tie dyes, fans, shell necklaces and sell them in the market.” 

After Covid the organisation lost its income generating activities, and numbers. It hasn’t recovered since, scraping by to provide many services, including next week’s workshop.

Taikoko says that mental health services are a human right, and must be included in a holistic approach to healthcare. 

Associate Professor/Poutumatua Pasifika of Waikato University, Dr Sione Vaka, will be the only overseas health practitioner delivering the workshop next week. 

Expected outcomes are: 

• Better awareness of mental problems in primary healthcare 
• Improvement in pick-up rate of mental illness in primary healthcare 
• Better skills in detection and primary care management 
• Ability to train others in basic mental health problems at community level and improve community awareness of mental health, ill health prevention
• Improved interest in mental health among primary health care workers 
• Improved services for the emotionally distressed.

The workshop is partly funded by ODA, with sponsorship by Cook Islands Badminton, Cook Islands Family Welfare, Island Car & Bike Hire and Minister Mac Mokoroa. 

The passing of her mentor, senior leader of World Psychiatric Association, Prof. M Parameshvara Deva, is still felt by Taikoko. 

“Dr Deva passed away in 2022. We lost that support. He wanted to take this workshop to the outer islands but I never got the chance to update him.”

Despite the challenges, Taikoko is already preparing for a mental health conference this time next year.

The Primary Care Psychiatry Course for Frontliners and Volunteers will run from Tuesday 30 January until Friday 2 February at New Hope Church in Avarua. Contact Te Kainga O Pa Taunga to register on 20162 or tekainga2018@gmail.com.