Elizabeth Raitaci, Liv Fountain and Tom Little of Pūkare cards also head the Pūkare Initiative, bringing youth led mental health talks to students across Hawke's Bay. Photo / Warren Buckland
Elizabeth Raitaci, Liv Fountain and Tom Little of Pūkare cards also head the Pūkare Initiative, bringing youth led mental health talks to students across Hawke's Bay. Photo / Warren Buckland
A group of students is searching for successors to carry forward their mental health initiative which has already drawn the interest of government departments and reached hundreds of Hawke’s Bay students.
Taradale High School Year 13 students Elizabeth Raitaci, Liv Fountain and Tom Little started Pūkare Cards forthe Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme in 2022 alongside fellow student Jasmine Paz.
Pūkare Cards are a set of 25 cards, each with a different emotion and scenario on the back in te reo Māori and English, designed as a teaching tool for children who have trouble expressing themselves.
Alongside this, the team has been running the Pūkare Initiative, a rangatahi-led mental health initiative with the support of a team from Te Whatu Ora Te Matau a Māui Hawke’s Bay.
“We go into schools and talk to students about our stories and encourage students to speak up by sharing the struggles we’ve faced,” Little said.
Little speaks about his ADHD, Fountain speaks about growing up with Cerebral palsy and Raitaci speaks about experiencing racism.
“We basically let students know, ‘Hey, it is ok to be different’ and we encourage them to embrace their differences, especially going into high school where things can be quite turbulent,” Little said.
Little said that so far, they had made presentations to about 300 students across three Hawke’s Bay schools and a group of Māori mental health professionals.
With the trio about to head to university, they are now looking for other students with inspiring stories to take up the initiative.
Nohorua Parata, Te Whatu Ora rangatahi adviser for population health advisory, said he met Little when both were working on the Stop Adolescent Vaping E-Cigarettes (S.A.V.E.) group and was introduced to the Pūkare kaupapa.
“This is a bunch of talented young people. When we had the first conversations, we talked about the idea that there is this gap in rangatahi-led initiatives to deliver for rangatahi by rangatahi,” Parata said.
Anaru Hodges, Te Whatu Ora Māori mental health adviser, said their first involvement with the Pūkare initiative was in 2022 when Pūkare Cards were introduced to specialist secondary mental health services with Te Whatu Ora in Hawke’s Bay.
“There is growth in the early prevention and early intervention space within mental health and addictions secondary specialist services and the Pūkare initiative really fulfils that space effortlessly and cohesively,” Hodges said.
Hodges said Te Whatu Ora support involved succession planning, advocacy for funding and clinical and cultural oversight.
He said cross-sector conversations about the initiative were now taking place outside of health care, with the young team speaking to staff from the Ministry of Education, Oranga Tamariki, Department of Corrections, Ministry of Justice, police and Kāinga Ora.
Fountain said they were looking for young people who were confident speakers and who were open to sharing their stories and being vulnerable, to carry forward the initiative.
“We’ve all found that one of the things we have had to deal with is opening up and allowing other young people into our lives a little more and that has helped them open up to us,” Fountain said.
Little said they were also willing to invest time into helping develop people who weren’t as confident become confident enough to take up the role and tell their stories.
Raitaci said they would ideally find three or four students going into year 12 or 13 to take up the opportunity.
Kurschteen Hawthorne-King, Anaru Hodges, Nohorua Parata and Vanessa Bousfield from the Hawke's Bay Foundation with the Pūkare Cards team. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Hawke’s Bay Foundation gave $8500 to fund the Pūkare Initiative.
Vanessa Bousfield, Hawke’s Bay Foundation administration and distribution officer, said that after distributing donated funds for immediate relief after Cyclone Gabrielle they began to look at tackling longer-term effects of the cyclone like mental health.
“We are very happy to be supporting this and we really liked that it was rangatahi supporting rangatahi, so it was an easy decision this one,“ Bousfield said.
Kurschteen Hawthorne-King, social worker for Ngā Harakeke Mai Rongokako (Child, Adolescent and Family Services), said they used Pūkare Cards in their practice and other social workers out in the community had been using them as well.
“I actively use it in the sessions with my young people, so I know that it works,” Hawthorne-King said.
Little said students who are interested in applying to take up the initiative can email pukarecards@gmail.com.
James Pocock joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2021 and writes breaking news and features, with a focus on environment, local government and post-cyclone issues in the region. He has a keen interest in finding the bigger picture in research and making it more accessible to audiences. He lives in Napier. james.pocock@nzme.co.nz
