Pacific youth mental health improves by ‘handling the jandal’

Building leadership, taking action in the community and providing a sense of belonging.

Those are the keywords in the Manukau-based community outreach programme “Handle the Jandal” designed to improve mental health and prevent suicides among young Pacific people.

And those simple tenets have made a difference in the first three years of the programme’s existence.

“The young people that I started working with are not the same today. It’s incredible,” said Alexandra Nicholas, project coordinator for Handle the Jandal, at the recent APAC Forum organised by Counties Manukau Healtha and Ko Awatea.

“They have been transformed by the leadership skills that they have picked up. They feel like they can do things and take action in our community.”

Ms Nicholas’ observations are backed by a recently published survey in the Australasia Psychiatry Journal. The survey shows that the young Pacific people involved with Handle the Jandal have experienced improvements in their mental health after six months in the programme.

“Can you handle your mother’s beating?” Alexandra Nicholas explains why the programme is called “Handle the Jandal”. Video: Niklas Pedersen

Handle the Jandal consists of 30 volunteer youth leaders. Each of them organises events in the South Auckland community and tries to help Pacific youth deal with stress and other pressures they might be facing.

“The young Pacific people tell us: ‘It’s like we are living in two worlds. One world is steeped in our faith, family and our culture. And then we go to school or work and it’s all about individual success. We don’t know how to live in these two worlds’,” said Ms Nicholas.

The programme was launched in 2012 in response to a spike in suicides among young Pacific people. At the time twice as many in this group had attempted suicide as the rest of New Zealand’s population.

Suicide figures reach all-time high

The problem of suicide hasn’t improved since then. This year is set to be the worst ever in regard to suicides in New Zealand.

Between June of last year and May of this year, 569 people took their own lives. That is 30 more than the year before and the highest number since records began.

But programmes like Handle the Jandal can help combat this increase, according to Dr Gloria Johnson, Chief Medical Officer at Counties Manukau.

“We know a lot of suicides have to do with how well-connected people actually feel with the people that care about them and the people in their community,” said Dr Johnson. “So something that actually helps people to address that, seems like it would be very suitable.”

“It’s really exciting being able to use people’s own resources and the idea that you can actually empower people to do a whole lot of stuff that is advantageous not only to themselves but to the community.”

The programme’s project coordinator will now try to make Handle the Jandal a nationwide service.

“We want to expand and look at community organising in the different constituencies: older people’s health and other groups – even outside of Counties Manukau,” said Ms Nicholas.

You can learn more about Handle the Jandal’s work with young Pacific people in the following video. Video: Ko Awatea