In May 2020, in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation held a one-off special granting round to provide funding for research into the impact of Covid-19 control measures on the delivery of Mental Health Services. There were three successful applications which received funding.
Covid-19 Special Funding
Dr Annette Mortensen, Refugees as Survivors New Zealand Trust
$5,000
Project: RASNZ COVID-19 Study
RASNZ is incredibly grateful to the Oakley Foundation for your generous contribution to our Covid-19 research project. There is currently very limited New Zealand research in the area of refugee mental health. As a small specialist NGO, we are keen to contribute to the expansion of services for people from refugee backgrounds and to increase understanding of this population’s mental health and wellbeing needs. This funding will allow us to research the challenges and benefits of working remotely with clients from refugee and asylum backgrounds in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly with regards to our most vulnerable clients, including solo mothers, young people, and asylum seekers.
Dr Gary Cheung, University of Auckland
$15,895
Project: The use of telepsychiatry during COVID-19: Experiences, learnings and implications for developing a culturally-informed best practice telepsychiatry competency framework for Aotearoa
I am an academic psychiatrist who has been involved in post-graduate psychiatry training for 8 years. I have previously conducted several projects aimed to improve post-graduate psychiatry training and supervision in New Zealand. I am particularly interested in supporting and mentoring trainees in their journey to become psychiatrists. For example, we have recently published the first patient suicide post-vention guidelines for psychiatry trainees and supervisors in Australasia. This COVID-19 telepsychiatry research project aligns with my passion in clinical education and delivering high quality culturally appropriate psychiatric care. It is highly relevant to contemporary psychiatry practice and likely to have a significant impact on the psychiatry community in New Zealand. Our findings also have the potential to take telepsychiatry forward in New Zealand by reducing inequalities and benefiting Pākehā, Māori, Pacific and Asian people with mental health and addiction challenges.
Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick and Dr Sarah Fortune, University of Auckland
$20,350
Project: Understanding the changes in patterns of demand for national helpline crisis services and their responses during COVID19
This funding means a lot to us in terms of increasing capacity in the suicide prevention research workforce to tackle this hugely important issue. It will allow us to support up and coming researchers, including Māori, Pasifika and women researchers. This funding would allow us to use our clinical and research expertise to contribute to the serendipitous opportunity presented by COVID-19 to advance innovative practices around suicide prevention in New Zealand. This fits within our research programme looking at a range of suicide prevention activities ranging from 1:1 clinical interventions (e.g. our Tune In apps) to whole of population prevention measures (e.g. reducing access to certain methods of suicide).