{"id":171824,"date":"2025-11-09T18:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/171824\/"},"modified":"2025-11-09T18:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T18:17:09","slug":"quake-era-initiative-becomes-lifeline-for-students-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/171824\/","title":{"rendered":"Quake-era initiative becomes lifeline for students\u2019 mental health"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2023, $3.7m of funding came from a Cyclone Gabrielle<\/a> recovery package to expand the programme to Hawke\u2019s Bay and Tairawhiti for one year \u2013 and has since been increased.<\/p>\n

Mana Ake is now implemented in 629 schools nationwide.<\/p>\n

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora said sustainable funding <\/a>has been secured for eight regions.<\/p>\n

Acting director of mentally well Lisa Gestro said it\u2019s a long-term solution, rather than a short-term intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the programme was originally funded in Christchurch following the earthquakes, funding has gradually been rolled out in other areas of the country.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe programme is not only for regions that have experienced a state of emergency or traumatic event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gestro said Mana Ake is a holistic, school-based mental wellbeing<\/a> programme that helps give primary and intermediate-aged tamariki (children) the resilience and support they need, when they need it, to cope with life\u2019s challenges. <\/p>\n

It includes whole-class, group-based and individual programmes and provides advice, guidance and workshops for parents, wh\u0101nau and teachers.<\/p>\n

Kaiapoi North School currently has Mana Ake.<\/p>\n

Principal Jason Miles said the programme is essential because without it, primary schools would have to rely on GPs and doctors for support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no funding or staffing for Year 1 to 8 schools in [the] mental wellbeing space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

While secondary schools receive staffing per capita for school counsellors, primary schools rely heavily on external support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Miles, who is also the vice-president of the New Zealand Principals\u2019 Federation, added that Mana Ake allows teachers to focus on teaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers are trained as teachers, you know, they\u2019re there to support all children\u2019s needs, but when we have moderate mental health needs, we want trained mental health professionals supporting children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jaime Cunningham is a Christchurch-based reporter with a focus on education, social issues and general news. She joined Newstalk ZB in 2023 after working as a sports reporter at the <\/b>Christchurch Star<\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2023, $3.7m of funding came from a Cyclone Gabrielle recovery package to expand the programme to Hawke\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276],"tags":[9941,54404,5820,54664,5812,98099,24178,18,788,4080,135,19,14692,17,98100,65841,7839,167,502,56340,98098,4284,4172,1420],"class_list":{"0":"post-171824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-across","9":"tag-becomes","10":"tag-being","11":"tag-canterbury","12":"tag-country","13":"tag-developed","14":"tag-earthquakes","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-essential","17":"tag-for","18":"tag-health","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-initiative","21":"tag-ireland","22":"tag-labelled","23":"tag-lifeline","24":"tag-mental","25":"tag-mental-health","26":"tag-mentalhealth","27":"tag-programme","28":"tag-quakeera","29":"tag-result","30":"tag-schools","31":"tag-students"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115521116087905800","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}