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Negative consequences of racism reflected in one's health

December 2006 Women's Health Watch

This New Zealand study finds that self-reported experience of discrimination is strongly associated with various measures of poor health, independent of socioeconomic status. This study used data from the 2002/2003 New Zealand Health Survey (NZHS) which included a series of questions on people's experiences of racial discrimination. Responses were compared with five health indicators (self-related health, physical functioning, mental health, current smoking and self-reported cardiovascular disease). There were five questions about racial discrimination covering personal experience of ethnically motivated physical or verbal attack; and unfair treatment because of ethnicity by a health professional, in work, or when gaining housing. These comparisons found that reported experience of racial discrimination is associated with poorer health and with current smoking.
Respondents who report experiencing three or more types of discrimination are up to three times more likely to report adverse health outcomes than those who do not report any discrimination. The study concludes that racism is a major determinate of health and a driver of health inequalities: 'as such policies designed to address racism should be included in the strategies adopted by governments to eliminate ethnic inequalities in health. This needs to involve both the health sector and wider society.'
Reference
Harris, R et al (2006) Racism and health: the relationship between experience of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine 63:1428-41.

The end of the skinny runway model?

December 2006 Women's Health Watch

Not in New Zealand! The good news that the Madrid fashion week banned runway models with a BMI (body mass index) of less than 18 was heralded as an international first. However New Zealand Fashion week- September 18-25th 2006 - did not follow suit.
Organisers of the Madrid fashion week cited a responsibility to portray healthy body images and were willing to turn underweight models away. The Madrid show turned away 30 percent of the women who took part in previous events. A minimum BMI of 18 bans models such as Kate Moss and other 'thinspiration' models from the runway. The plan is that the fashion industry can begin to address health issues, including anorexia amongst its models, and portray a healthier image to the public...Read More

Summer Daze - drink, drugs and rape

January 2007 Women's Health Update

Unfortunately sexual assault is a spectre that is always present in the lives of women. Sexual assaults tend to increase in the summer months. This is because summer lifestyles often mean women are out of safe places. Windows and doors are open and defences are down as we enjoy the freedom of summer days and nights. Unsurprisingly few of us think about what to do or what happens after a sexual assault. None-the-less few would deny that good sexual assault services and responses are vital...Read More

SUBMISSION ON Guidelines on Using Cells from Established Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines for Research

March 2006 Women's Health Action

Women's Health Action has maintained an active interest in all aspect of biotechnology and women. We were active in discussion around the HART Bill 1996, contributed to the HART submissions in 2003, have produced the discussion document "Protecting our Future: the case for greater regulation of assisted reproductive technologies" (1999) and have contributed submissions on the review of the regulation of human tissue & tissue based therapies in 2004. We have a long history and huge interest in this area.

Women's Health Action supports the need for a complete ban all human embryonic stem cell research in New Zealand. We are of the view that any embryonic stem cell research is moving us toward commercialisation of human bodies and biological material. The current draft guidelines are insufficient in ensuring that we can avoid a market value being placed on bodies, body parts or body products. We note the sale of stem cell lines is already occurring internationally. Guidelines alone lack the strength and accountability of legislation and regulation. The draft guidelines are unenforceable. If the guidelines are adopted we see no evidence of how breaches of these guidelines will be handled. We remain concerned that the approval of some forms of human embryonic stem cell research will eventually be expanded to include other forms of embryonic stem cell research....Read More

Submission to NCW CEDAW Project- NGO Alternative Shadow Report 2007

May 2006 Women's Health Action

Women's Health Action (WHA) would like to thank NCW for the opportunity to comment on the Second Draft of the 2006 CEDAW shadow report. We sent a submission in to the draft version in November 2005. We are happy to see that our submission comments have been incorporated into the second draft. We provide further comment to this draft as upon this additional reading we find areas that should be expanded and provide supporting documentation for hese issues....Read More

Enterobacter Sakazakii notifiable

September 2005 Women's Health Watch

From July this year (2005) E sakazakii has been added to the list of notifiable diseases in New Zealand. This means that if it is suspected it must be reported immediately to the local Medical Officer of Health.
E Sakazakii is a bacteria found in the environment, and more significantly, in low levels in some powdered milk formula. No one particular formula is more likely to be infected but as formula is not sterile, it is a possibility for all of them. The issue of making E sakazakaii notifiable arose after the death of a premature baby at Waikato Hospital in 2004. Four cases have been identified in New Zealand and neonates in hospital settings are most at risk. E sakazakii can cause meningitis, brain abscess, necrotising enterocolitis, bloody diarrhoea, and sepsis. Not only is the acute disease life-threatening but it often leaves survivor with long term consequences.
Making ES notifiable allows better observation of the number of cases and their consequences and also ensures early action can be taken to prevent further cases. Since this case generated publicity, powdered artificial baby milk is no longer used in neonatal intensive care units. Breastfeeding is promoted and, if this isn't possible then sterile liquid ready to feed infant formula is used. Advice for mothers at home has also changed suggesting that mothers prepare only enough artificial baby milk to cover the next feed as close as possible to the time that they need it.
For more information on the Waikato case and the background to this issue - see www.moh.govt.nz and put sakazakii into the search engine.For more information on the safe preparation of artificial baby milk, see the NZ Food safety Authority website: www.nzfsa.govt.nz

Party Pills - A Social Tonic?

September 2005 Women's Health Watch

In June, this year an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act - amendment bill (no 3) passed restricting the sale of party pills to those over 18 and requiring standards in their manufacture and marketing.
Over the last five years, eight million party pills have been sold in New Zealand. They have become increasingly visible and widely available. Not only can you buy them at petrol stations, liquor outlets and dairies but there are a number of shops which specialise in their sale. The shop in the photo is an outlet in the heart of Rotorua CBD which trumpets its wares like a newly decriminalised prostitute.
The main ingredient in the most popular party pills is BZP (benzylpiperazine) which has a chequered history as both an antidepressant in humans and a parasite treatment in cattle. It's use as an antidepressant in the seventies was shortlived when research demonstrated side effects. Strange choice for a party drug but its desirable effects in this new millennium include stimulation of the central nervous system which keeps you awake and induces a feeling of euphoria for up to eight hours....Read More

Doctors and Debt

September 2005 Women's Health Watch

In a groundbreaking collaborative project between the NZUSA ( NZ University Student's Association), NZMSA (NZ Medical Students Association) and the NZMA (NZ Medical Association) a study of the effects of user pays education have come together in a publication: Doctors and Debt: The effect of student debt on doctors. A previous study in 2001 found medical students owing around $47 million with a median debt of around $60,000 each. The 2005 study found that the average debt at graduation was around $65,000 with substantial race-based differentials - $81,250 for Maori, $68,682 for Pakeha and $48,180 for Asian graduates.

Women take significantly longer to pay off their debt as they are less likely to be in the workforce on a fulltime basis over their working life. The lifetime female labour force participation rate 59% compared to over 70% for men. In 2002, women made up just over 20% of the specialist workforce and the work and vocational areas where women currently outnumber men are: breast medicine, family planning and reproductive health, palliative medicine and sexual health medicine. There were no women working in medical administration, rehabilitation medicine, cardiothoracic surgery or neurosurgery.
Women's unpaid work in the home and the community means that they often support partners to pay off debt while not reducing their own personal debt. The level of debt has health and social consequences - over 80% of those with student loans reported debt based stress and 42% said that it had influenced their decisions around when and whether to have children. Nearly two thirds said they would consider leaving New Zealand within three years of graduating.

Funding health and social advocacy groups

May 2005 Women's Health Watch

 

A recent issue of the Health & Social Campaigners' News (HSCNews) featured a fascinating review of the Annual Reports of 125 consumer, disability and health advocacy organisations. The groups selected were mainly very large organisations based in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. There were also 17 others who had their headquarters in Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Singapore and New Zealand. The one NZ organisation included was the National Heart Foundation. The geographical brief of the organisations studied ranged from global (18 groups), European (3), national (81) and local (23).
As well as forming a snapshot of the breadth and scale of the health and social campaigning movement worldwide, the Annual Reports illustrated the level of transparency and accessibility of the campaigners' financial accounts and the sector's source of funds, especially donations from medical suppliers and the rest of the healthcare industry. The latter is particularly important as the media, the medical profession and even some governments have begun to question whether pharmaceutical company ties with patient or consumer advocacy groups are bad for public health...Read More

Women gain seats on District Health Boards

October 2004 Women's Health Update

The percentage of women elected onto district health boards (DHBs) this time is up slightly on previous DHB elections.
Women make up 44% of the people elected to DHBs, and a further half of those recently appointed to DHBs by the Minister of Health, Hon Annette King, are women.
The elections do seem to have caused some confusion amongst voters. All DHBs had a large number of candidates standing for election, and the new STV system where voters had to rank their preferred candidates in priority order added to the confusion.
This is reflected in the considerable number of informal and blank voting papers received by returning officers, along with the continuing trend where people vote for health professionals ' including nurses, midwives and health administrators. Also popular were people who had a high profile in their local community such as city and district councillors, former MPs, and policemen....Read More

Prostitution - out of the backstreets and coming to a backyard near you?

November 2003 Women's Health Watch

Sandra Coney looks at the effects on local councils of the passing of the Prostitution Reform Act.

27 June 2003 - the Prostitution Reform Act passes by one vote with a critical abstention amidst rumours of political heavying of Labour MPs who might have voted against their colleague Tim Barnett's private member's bill. Various last minute sections were added to the Act to make the unpalatable more acceptable, most notably Justice Minister Phil Goff's clauses giving local councils powers to pass bylaws about signage and locations of brothels. The problem has now been passed down to local councils who never sought to get involved. What's more, it's ratepayers' money that will fund the development of bylaws, public consultation, and the on-going investigation of complaints about brothels. It's early days for local councils, but they are struggling with the issue, and the Act says they must get their new rules in place by December this year. Normal timeframe for a bylaw is about eight months and for a district plan change nine months....Read More

Our Aussie cousins

November 2003 Women's Health Watch

Most states in Australia decriminalised or legalised prostitution in the mid-1990s or before. The New Zealand system is modelled on the New South Wales legislation. Victoria has a licensing system. So what's happened in Australia?...Read More

Are Women Born Free?

November 2003 Women's Health Watch

The question Margaret Wilson posed at the First United Women's Convention, was revisited at Women's Health Action's Smokefree Suffrage Breakfast held on the 19th of September at the Ellerslie Convention Centre. Around 230 people, mostly women, came to hear Hon Margaret Wilson (the Attorney-General, Minister of Labour, Minister of Courts, Minister in Charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and Associate Minister of Justice) address issues raised by women 30 years ago which are still relevant today. Louise James was there....Read More

Submission ideas from Women's Health Action on the Care of Children Bill

2003

Submissions to this bill have now closed but there is some serious lobbying going on from groups which we see as anti women. Therefore we are suggesting you write letters on any points below that you feel passionate about to members of the Select Committee considering the bill. There are a huge number of submissions to be heard and some of the points will no doubt hit the media over the next few months....

The legalisation of prostitution: A failed social experiment

April 2003 Women's Health Watch

As New Zealand Parliament considers the Prostitution Reform Bill, human rights delegates and NGOs met in New York to discuss the status of women. Melbourne academic and writer, Sheila Jeffreys, attended and gave this address at the Swedish Mission Side Event at the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

I shall suggest today that the social experiment of legalising brothel prostitution which took place in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s has failed in all of its objectives i.e. stopping the illegal industry and police corruption, reducing the harm to women, stopping street prostitution. In fact these harms have increased and significant new harms have joined them such as the traffic in women. Australian legalisation has been used as a model by those countries who have recently legalised, such as the Netherlands, and those who are considering it e.g. New Zealand. It is very important then, to look at how this experiment has failed lest any other countries hope to alleviate the harms of prostitution by going down the legalisation track....Read More

Giving birth between two worlds Goan women in NZ

April 2003 Women's Health Update

Ruth De Souza recently completed a masters degree on migration, mental health and motherhood. Ruth, born in East Africa of Goan Indian origin, works in NZ as a mental health nurse and nursing educator. Camille Guy asked her about the research and the birthing experiences of recently immigrated Goan women

It is hard for those of us born in this country to comprehend how disorienting it must be to be both a new immigrant and to be giving birth, perhaps for the first time, in a new country.
Such women bring to the experience of pregnancy and delivery memories of the way it happened in their homeland. But at this period of extreme vulnerability they must reconcile comforting homeland rituals with new and unfamiliar practices. Which voices of authority to trust?
While working in maternal mental health and in post-natal wards in Auckland, Ruth De Souza became curious about why mental health services are under-utilised by migrant women. White, articulate and affluent women certainly used them. So how were migrant women, deprived of their traditional safety nets, coping?
De Souza conducted in depth interviews with seven Goan women about their migration history, their adjustment to living in New Zealand and experiences of childbirth and motherhood here...Read More

Talking about prostitution

December 2002   Women's Health Watch

Women's Health Action has attracted attention because it firmly opposes current proposed 'reform' to decriminalise prostitution. In October, Sandra Coney attended a conference in Melbourne to mark the first International Day of No Prostitution. The conference was organised by the Australian branch of the international Campaign Against Trafficking in Women. (CATW). CATW is an NGO that opposes all forms of prostitution and trafficking of women, girls and boys, and has Category 2 consultative status at the United Nations...Read More

Obstetric intervention rates and ethnicity

September 2002 Women's Health Watch

Maori and Pacific women who gave birth at National Women's Hospital in Auckland from 1992 to 1999 had much lower rates of induction, prelabour caesarean section and operative vaginal delivery than other women, according to hospital researchers.
This supports a 1999 Ministry of Health report that showed a relationship between lower rates of obstetric procedures and Maori or Pacific ethnicity.
However, caesarean delivery rates for Maori and Pacific women at National Women's did not differ in total from those of other women. The lower rate of prelabour caesareans for Maori and Pacific women was offset by higher rates of emergency caesarean.
A hospital research team studied more than 43,000 first births of single children at the hospital, which were not preceded by previous caesarean section. Ten percent of mothers were Maori and 19% Pacific.
They controlled for factors including first or subsequent birth; maternal age, smoking; public or private patients; caregiver; hypertension; diabetes and preterm births. They were unable to control for maternal weight or the time of epidural analgesia. They concluded that lower rates of epidural analgesia for Maori and Pacific women may partly explain the lower rate of operative vaginal delivery.
Ref: NZMJ 2002; 115:36-9

Women's voices shape action plan on violence

July 2002 Women's Health Update

Jo Fitzpatrick reports on newly released research that uses women's experiences to develop strategies on ending abuse

Dr Jennifer Hand, principal researcher in a ground-breaking study of violence against women in New Zealand families, believes it is time for action: 'I believe we are at a point in New Zealand history where we are not only heartily sick of the violence around us but are prepared to do something about it.' The study, Free From Abuse: What women say and what can be done, is designed to provoke action.
The inspiration for Free From Abuse was the stories public health promotion workers heard from abused women and the agencies working with them. The women in the study had all made the journey away from abuse and they identified the elements that assisted and supported them as well as the things that got in their way....Read More

Crazy-making

April 2002 Women's Health Update

 

When women say their men'drove them mad', is it just a flippant remark or does domestic violence drive some women crazy? Cordelia Lockett reports.
Debbie Hager set out to investigate a possible link between domestic violence and mental health as part of her Masters in Public Health. In-depth interviews with 10 women who had experienced partner abuse as well as mental health problems formed the core of Debbie Hager's research. She also interviewed 20 staff in agencies dealing with abused women - police, courts, domestic violence services, mental health services, independent psychiatrists and academics. The strongest theme to emerge from the research is that abuse, especially emotional abuse, does make women think they are crazy. As one woman summed up: 'I think you can be as sane as anything and repeated messages to you that really are damaging can make anybody crazy.'...Read More

Mana Wahine & the necessity of kaupapa Maori

April 2002 Women's Health Update

 

Jo Fitzpatrick reports on keynote presentations by Maori women at the Health Promotion Conference.
It was clear from the beginning that the Health Promotion Forum Conference was grounded in Aotearoa and that mana wahine are a significant force here. Two Maori women doctors described the historical impact of Pakeha settlement on Maori using descriptors (civilised, patronised, minimised, minoritised and colonised) and providing examples. Dr Papaarangi Reid (Te Rarawa) is director of the Eru Pomare Maori Health Research Centre at the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr Fiona Cram (Ngati Kahungungu) is a Senior Research fellow at the International Research Institute for Maori and Indigenous Education at the University of Auckland, recently recognised as one of the six research Centres of Excellence in Aotearoa....Read More

Study confirms that the health of sole mothers is poor compared to other New Zealand women

March 2002 Women's Health Watch

Recent research from Auckland University throws light on the health of women on the DPB. Cordelia Lockett reports.

Researcher Karen McMillan was not surprised by the finding of the study that sole mothers have poor physical and emotional health.'Our research mirrors what the international literature is saying. What was surprising, however, was the extent of the disparity. In some of the criteria the gap was really wide.'
The principal investigators in the study were Dr Heather Worth from the Centre for Research on Gender and Professor Maureen Baker from the Department of Sociology. Using an international measure of self-reported health, the SF36, they surveyed 243 women on the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) whose youngest child was over six and who were not excluded from work testing for any health reasons (so these women were not those with the worst health).
The survey asked participants to rate their health according to a list of 36 physical, psychological and social criteria. Data from the beneficiary group was then compared with the baseline of NZ women as recorded in the 1999 national health survey - Taking the Pulse....Read More

Table: A comparison of mean (SF-36) scale scores for beneficiary respondents and NZ women.

March 2002 Women's Health Watch

Beneficiary respondents n=243
NZ women aged 25-64 n=2960
Physical functioning
76.19
88.20
Role-physical
56.17
81.72
Bodily pain
60.90
78.40
General health
62.00
76.06
Vitality score
45.66
63.69
Social functioning
62.48
85.76
Role-emotional
51.10
83.81
Mental health
60.08
76.64

Refugee Afghani women reach safe haven in New Zealand

January 2002 Women's Health Watch

Annette Mortensen, Refugee Health Coordinator for Auckland District Health Board, outlines the health needs of the new arrivals.

Last month, after a much publicised journey, Afghani women off the Tampa arrived in Auckland. They were among the tens of thousands of women in Afghanistan who effectively remain prisoners in their homes under Taleban edicts.

There are over 40 million refugees and displaced peoples worldwide of whom two-thirds are women and girls. Less than one per cent of the world's refugees reach the safety of a country of asylum.

New Zealand is one of only nine resettlement countries. We accept an annual quota of 750 refugees and about the same number of asylum seekers are granted refugee status annually. These refugees have the status of New Zealand residents and are eligible for all publicly funded health and disability services. So are asylum-seekers who are in the process of applying for refugee status. The selection of quota refugees is targeted at those in greatest need of resettlement, with particular attention to emergency cases, medical/disabled cases and women-at-risk....Read More

Health effects of losing a spouse

September 2001 Women's Health Watch

The reaction of older people to the death of a spouse varies, depending on the stress levels caused by caring for dying relative. United States researchers investigated the reaction of caregivers to the death of a spouse because most deaths occur among older people with disabling conditions. This means family members have to care for their sick relative for an extended period.

Researchers studied about 130 people aged 66-96 whose spouse had died and looked for factors such as depression symptoms, antidepressant medication use, weight and health risk.

An interesting finding was that caregivers who were stressed while caring for their dying relative showed significant improvement in health-risk after the death of their spouse.

The authors say depression scores remained high but increased for spouses who were not caring for their dying relatives. Non care-givers also showed significant weight loss.

The authors conclude that the impact of losing one's spouse varies. For people who are stressed before the death, the death itself does not increase their level of distress. Instead they show a reduction in health risks.

However noncaregivers who lose a spouse show increased depression and weight loss.
Ref: JAMA 2001; 285: 3123-29

Lone mothers face money worries and health risks

July 2001 Women's Health Update

Sandra Coney reports on recent research from Otago University which throws new light on lone mothers in New Zealand.

Otago University research fellow Diana Sarfati was moved to look at lone mothers after experiencing three weeks on her own with small children while her partner was away. Her youngest, 12 weeks old, was not sleeping. Sarfati wondered how lone mothers, with fewer material and emotional resources, coped.
Sarfati found that no one else in New Zealand had looked at the health of lone mothers as a central issue, yet it deserved to be. Twenty-seven percent of all families with dependent children in New Zealand are headed by a lone mother. With the focus now on determinants of health, the fact that lone mothers have very low family incomes should make them an important group in developing public policy.
'Over the past 25 years the proportion of families with dependent children headed by a lone parent had trebled,' says Sarfati. 'It is a major public health issue.'
WINZ data shows that despite the popular view that lone mothers are teenagers who have never married, two-thirds of lone parents are living apart from former partners. Only 16 percent began receiving a benefit before the age of 20. The vast majority of lone parents are women; only one child in eight lives with a sole father....Read More

Call for repetitive strain injury investigation

December 2000 Women's Health Watch

The Council of Trade Unions wants an independent medical panel to draw up criteria for diagnoses of repetitive strain injury. The call comes after a District Court judge upheld an ACC decision to revoke cover for a Wellington switchboard operator, even though her claim had been approved and paid out five years previously. Her payments were stopped after ACC ordered a specialist review that found a work cause for her injuries unproven. The judge chided ACC for giving the woman cover in the first place, saying it should have made proper inquiries about the nature of her injuries.
Union president Ross Wilson says the decision highlights the need for an independent medical panel to analyse international evidence and put together criteria for diagnosing repetitive strain-type injuries. He says the decision puts a substantial onus on claimants to prove the cause of their injury and new legislation being introduced should address issues such as criteria for repetitive strain injury.
Ref; New Zealand Herald; 27/9/2000

All fired up over Fahey

September 2000 Women's Health Watch

Sandra Coney investigates actions being taken by medical groups in the wake of the Morgan Fahey case

In Auckland Feminist Action activists have stuck up posters around the city warning women that doctors should be listed among those who rape. It's men who know you who rape, the posters say. New Zealand Medical Association chair, Dr Pippa MacKay, is disappointed. The posters, she said, would incite distrust.
The case of Dr Morgan Fahey has incited diverse responses and health professional groups are struggling to work out how to respond.
The concept of 'chaperons' has been dusted off and proposed as an answer, but this has not won universal support. 'Mystery shoppers' to trap abusive doctors was proposed by the Medical Council of New Zealand, but got the thumbs down from women's groups, and from GPs, 55% of whom voted against it in a IMS Health New Zealand Doctor poll.
Dr Fahey, a senior Christchurch GP and one-time deputy-mayor of the city, was convicted of 13 charges of sexual abuse of patients, including sexual violation and rape, going back 34 years. A number of complainants were Ansett flight attendants who were required to see Fahey for their medicals. They complained that Fahey required them to undress and groped their breasts. Women told their supervisors, but little occured. In 1991 the flight attendants were told they could have a female chaperon with them when they saw Fahey.
Other cases involved patients who visited Fahey where he worked at the Shirley Medical Centre.
The case came to light after a 20/20 TV expose, where an ex-patient confronted Fahey with a hidden camera. Although Fahey finally pleased guilty, for months he vehemently denied the charges. One of the most disturbing aspects of the case for women members of the public, was that all his colleagues gave him the benefit of the doubt, and that women's concerns were disbelieved....Read More

DTC advertising unwelcome

April 2000 Women's Health Update

The new Health Minister, Annette King, has promised a review of direct to consumer (DTC) advertising, following numerous complaints from the public and community organisations. Bridget Vercoe reports.

Eating Difficulties Education Network (EDEN) successfully stopped the Xenical advertisement entitled, 'If you'd kill for a better figure, we've got a plan to dispose of the body'.

A complaint by Women's Health Action was upheld at the end of last year about an advertisement for the contraceptive injection, Depo-Provera, published in New Zealand Woman s Weekly, New Idea and She magazines. WHA's executive director Sandra Coney says the full-page advertisement contained virtually no information. Instead readers were directed to information elsewhere in the magazine. But no page number was given for where to find it and the language used was highly medical. This was in breach of the new Advertising Standard Authority's Code for Therapeutic Advertising....Read More

Strategies for institutions, agencies and professional organisations to develop working partnerships with the community and consumer groups

October 1999 Women's Health Action PAPER

This paper is intended to provide practical strategies for institutions, agencies and professional organisations wishing to develop and improve their relationship with the community, and consumer groups in particular. The paper is also intended to facilitate discussion and debate on the benefits of establishing closer links with relevant consumer organisations. It suggests ways in which consumer organisations can be kept informed about the activities of the institution or agency. As a consequence, consumer organisations can be more effective in providing consumer input when required and can be more actively involved in the activities of the institution. The examples provided are not all encompassing and are included as suggestions for getting started...Read More

Through a glass darkly: Seeing old age and the old

September 1999 Women's Health Watch

Anne Else challenges alarmist ideas about aging in New Zealand in this address, which she gave at the Auckland University's winter lecture series.

102-year-old Bessie Scott delivered the ball for the rugby test between the All Blacks and the Springboks on 10 July 1999. She was chosen through a competition; the 70-year-old woman who suggested her said she would be an appropriate choice in the International Year of Older Persons, because she had 'shown courage, determination and strength in her lifetime, just as our rugby players do today'.

Bessie Scott, we were told, is fiercely independent and still lives alone in her Mosgiel home. Although officials decided to drive her onto the field, she could have walked instead. She is a keen rugby fan, though she had never before seen a test match live.

The Bessie Scott story represents the old as active, determined and involved individuals, receiving their rightful due from a respectful society which recognises their human value. This is in sharp contrast to the reality facing most old women in New Zealand. In real life, lone old women are much more likely to encounter lack of recognition and neglect, and to be unable to get what they want, than groups of former masculine heroes are....Read More

The ageing population - debunking the scaremongering

December 1998 Women's Health Watch

Anne Else is the co-author, with Susan St John, of a new book on ageing and superannuation called A Super Future. The following is the text of a talk that Anne gave to the recent Women's Health Summit held in Wellington.

All over the world, women can now expect to live longer than their mothers did. Life expectancy is higher than it has ever been before. In New Zealand, women who reach 65 can expect to live for another 19 years. Men can expect to live for another 15 years.

The reasons for this male/female gap are complex. However, it is getting smaller. The other marked difference in New Zealand is between Maori and non-Maori. Unlike the difference between men and women, most of this gap is due to deaths before the age of 65. Maori death rates for the year after birth, for men aged 40 and over, and for cardiovascular disease and lung cancer are still high compared with non-Maori rates. But the overall difference is much smaller than it was even 20 years ago. For those who reach 65, it is now narrow....Read More

Making people count

December 1997 Women's Health Watch

Anne Else reports on the Population Conference, Wellington, 12-14 November 1997.

Population is not about counting people, but ensuring that people count in policy and development.... What is the point of public policy or of entrepreneurship if the society is not made wealthier and healthier, and culturally and socially richer?'

This is how Professor Ian Pool, of the Population Studies Centre at Waikato University, summed up his keynote address (co-authored by Professor Richard Bedford) to the conference. Unfortunately, the facts about population structure and dynamics which he so clearly set out were ignored by many other speakers. This summary is based on the full-length paper available at the conference, as well as the address....Read More

New to New Zealand: the experiences of new immigrant women

December 1997 Women's Health Watch

Different use of health professionals, a preference for female health care providers, and the need for education about New Zealand health care services were some of the common themes that emerged at Women's Health Action's seminar on 'New Immigrant Women: Cultural Perspectives', held in early November 1997.

The seminar was organised after practice nurses and other providers reported their uncertainty and reticence in providing services for women from immigrant groups whose cultures differ from mainstream New Zealand. Women from many of the new immigrant groups are unused to the kind of more equal relationships with providers that New Zealand women have fought to achieve....Read More

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