Help us support the Mental Wellbeing of Migrants in New Zealand
Starting a new life in a new country can bring with it many challenges.
Being a migrant to New Zealand can bring with it wonderful opportunities but it can also put significant stress on people who are adjusting to a new culture, language and a new way of living far away from friends and family.
This stress can easily affect people’s mental wellbeing, and yet Asian migrants in particular experience many barriers to accessing help if they are having mental health challenges.
Education can support mental wellbeing
Did you know? Mental health issues affect 1 in 4 people worldwide. Just like we have physical health, we all have mental health and there are things we can do to easily protect our wellbeing. Mental health education programmes are an effective way of improving mental wellbeing. They work by:
helping people understand mental health and what affects it
teaching people how to protect their mental health during challenging times.
raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of mental distress in themselves and others
Raising awareness of what mental health support is available
By bringing mental health education to migrant communities, we can directly increase the mental health knowledge and skills of migrants living in New Zealand. This means they are better equipped to navigate the challenges that their new life abroad brings to their mental wellbeing and can take an active role in helping their families and communities to thrive.
Hear from Tintin Xie, a New Zealand based Chinese Counsellor, MSC psych, NZAC member:
Q1: Why is it important to help Chinese and Asian Migrants to talk about mental health?
Q2: What are the typical challenges you see among Asian and Chinese migrants concerning their mental health?
According to a recent survey, there are multiple barriers experienced by Asian migrants that prevents them seeking help when struggling with their mental health.
A lack of awareness of mental health disorders, lack of knowledge of services, and language barriers were the most common barriers experienced by Asian migrants (source: Asian Family Services New Zealand 2021 Wellbeing Survey)
With your funding support, we can keep on supporting the mental wellbeing of migrant communities. Here’s what we’ve achieved together so far
WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS WORKSHOPS COMPLETED WORKSHOP SATISFACTION
What we can achieve together with your help
Your donation can help us work with mental health experts and community members to co-create a tailored mental health training programme and resources for the migrant community, here in New Zealand.
Our team will use the learnings gained from delivering workshops to hundreds of people in communities in New Zealand, that have helped people to learn about mental health and support their wellbeing. Here are some ways our workshops have supported local diverse communities:
Stories from our Chinese Community
“Headlight provided an excellent half day program to attend. It gave me lots of input regarding what mental health overall is. The program helped me to understand the signs of mental illness. I have learned a lot of tips on how to tackle mental health issues as well as identifying if others have mental health issues. This program gave me the opportunity to help people around me such as family, friends, colleagues, and the wider community. ”
We need your help
Donations will go directly to helping us develop and roll out this programme so that it can help more migrant communities across New Zealand to support their mental wellbeing