PADA - Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Aotearoa

23/09/2025

Today our Hine Ora Hine Tū Peer Support Pasifika cohort students, Anjelica Tova, Laura Mclellan and Shanee Edmonds, facilitated a Workforce Development Workshop with the incredible Kaimahi/Kaiarahi at Te Kaha o te Rangatahi – Indigenous Youth Hub in Manukau 💜👏🏽

🌱 Te Kaha O Te Rangatahi is a Māori and Pasifika youth development trust that empowers rangatahi and their whānau, with a strong focus on young parents through antenatal and postnatal wānanga, parenting support, health and wellbeing programmes, and pathways into education and employment.

Building from this, Jasmine Davis (PADA Pasifika Educator) and the Hine Ora Hine Tū Pasifika rōpū will deliver full-day Tama'ita'i Toa workshops next month in:

📍 Dunedin – 17 October
📍 Auckland – 24 October

To purchase your tickets or for more info ➡ pada.nz/events/

21/09/2025

The recent statement by Minister Matt Doocey, promising a change to the Mental Health Bill so that mums and babies are kept together in most instances, is a step in the right direction.

It acknowledges what many of us have been saying: separation of birthing parent and baby during mental health crises is traumatic, often avoidable, and must be a last resort.

But words must become action, and the picture we have of current support is grim. Minister Doocey said around 4,000 mums are accessing maternal mental health services. Our statistics show there are at least 16,000 birthing parents who are not, and another 6,000–10,000 non-birthing parents who are going it alone. These are people navigating grief, anxiety, depression, or overwhelming distress without the mental health care they need.

We need to hold the Government and our health system accountable:

🟣 Make “keeping parent and baby together where safe” a legal and enforceable principle, not just a guideline.

🟢 Invest in more Mother (Birthing Parent)-and-Baby Units (MBUs) across the country, not just in Auckland and Christchurch, so that geography (or lack of access) doesn’t decide who gets decent care.

🔵 Ensure that bereaved parents and non-birthing parents get equal recognition and standardised care, including after stillbirth or loss. The stories of birthing parents being placed on wards with live-baby birthing parents after stillbirth are unacceptable.

🟣 Address fragmentation and inequity in perinatal mental health services so that the 4,000 served aren’t seen as “enough,” while thousands more are unseen.

To do less is to accept that thousands of parents will continue suffering alone, that our society will continue to suffer.

The Bill’s proposed changes are promising, but they must be matched with funding and infrastructure.

'You really have to question whether that is the right thing.'

18/09/2025

In 1893, Aotearoa New Zealand became the first country where all women could vote 🗳

Suffrage wasn’t just about politics - it was about having a voice, and with that voice, shaping the systems that impact our lives, our health, and our minds.

✊🏽 Today, let’s honour the wāhine who fought for our rights, and keep pushing for a future where women’s voices guide women’s health and mental health services.

Because when women are heard, communities thrive 💜

18/09/2025

A huge thanks to the Four Winds Foundation for supporting us with funding for a new office cellphone. We are grateful for your support! 📱💚

17/09/2025

Joanne Teina (PADA Kaumātua and Kāiarahi Māori) sharing her wisdom on Dadolescence. Available to watch now on TVNZ+.

16/09/2025

Every year, thousands of parents in Aotearoa navigate pregnancy, birth, and early parenting while facing mental health challenges - often in silence. For those who experience loss, trauma, or serious perinatal mental illness, the support can be patchy or non-existent.

🚨 There are only two dedicated mother and baby units in the country, in Auckland and Christchurch, meaning parents in crisis are often separated from their newborns when admitted to mental health services. And for bereaved parents, there is little structured follow-up care, despite the profound impact that stillbirth, miscarriage, or infant loss can have on mental health.

These gaps are not just cracks in the system - they are chasms that families are falling through.

💙 At PADA, we advocate the government to support our braided river system vision - uniting clinical, kaupapa Māori, and community-based providers across Aotearoa to ensure families are supported from every angle. With sustained government support and investment, this collaborative approach could be scaled into a fully functioning, supportive, and inclusive system where no parent falls through the gaps.

Parents are the foundation of our society’s future. Healthy parents create healthy societies. When we invest in perinatal mental health, we are not only saving lives -we are building stronger whānau, stronger communities, and a stronger Aotearoa.

💜 Thank you to our lived experience whānau who have the strength to share their journeys. Without their mahi, these messages would not be as strongly received or understood.

It’s time to ensure every parent has access to the support they deserve - from pregnancy through to parenthood, and through loss if that journey takes a heartbreaking turn.

🟢🔵🟣

The video is available for everyone to view, while access to the full article is paywalled unfortunately.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/from-psychosis-to-stillbirth-and-su***de-how-maternal-mental-health-services-are-failing-kiwi-mums/3RN6SAR24RBCDGM3ISMPO2AD74/

What three parents' experience reveal on the state of maternal mental health.

16/09/2025

Tama'ita'i Toa is back in Tāmaki Makaurau next month! 💜

A workshop honouring Pacific māmā through perinatal mental health, culture, and connection 🌸

💭 For more info and tickets ➡ pada.nz/event/tamaitai-toa-24oct2025-akl/

🔵🟢🟣

15/09/2025

It is the final week of Good in the Hood, aligning with Te Wiki o te Reo Māori!

Any purchase - whether that is kōhinu ⛽, a kawhe, or a kōpaki - earns you an orange token 🟠 to vote for who you choose.

Order your kawhe in te reo Māori to tick off wero #15 👀 while backing PADA at the same time! 💙

📍 Vote for us at these Z Energy stations by September 22:

Z Whangaparāoa
Z Glen Park | Auckland
Z Hunters Corner | Auckland
Z Beach Road | Auckland
Z Henderson Valley | Hamilton
Z Fenton St | Rotorua
Z Windsor | Hastings
Z Linwood | Christchurch

Every token counts. Every wero counts. Kia kaha te reo Māori.

💜💚💙

15/09/2025

🔴 This week marks the 50th anniversary of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori!

🟠 Celebrate te reo Māori by checking out the 50 challenges set for it and seeing how many you can do.

🟡 There are wero for everyone, no matter what level of te reo you speak!

🟢 Take part by signing up at reomaori.co.nz/50-wero, selecting the wero you want to do, use the resources to help you complete the challenges, and then mark it off and submit a video of your challenge.

🔵 For every challenge completed, you go into the draw to win 1 of 50 Te Wiki o te Reo Māori giveaways, including exclusive 50 Years of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori merch! 👕