Keynote Speakers
Professor Mason Durie (New Zealand)
Mason Durie is a member of the Rangitane, Ngati Kauwhata and Ngati Raukawa tribes. After graduating in medicine he completed specialist training in psychiatry and was appointed Director of Psychiatry for the Palmerston North Hospital Board.
In 1988, after completing a two-year period as a Commissioner for the Royal Commission on Social Policy, he was appointed to the chair in MÄori Studies at Massey University. He is currently Professor of MÄori Research and Development and Assistant Vice-Chancellor (MÄori).
Dr Tracy Westerman (Australia)
Dr Westerman is of the Nyamal people in the far North West of Western Australia and is the founding Managing Director of Indigenous Psychological Services (IPS).
She developed IPS for the purpose of addressing the inequities that exist between the rates of mental illness in indigenous populations and the levels of access to appropriate services.
Dr Westerman holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Science (Psychology), a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and Doctor of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology. She is the only Aboriginal person in Australia to have earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology.
Her PhD thesis received a commendation from the Chancellor - an honour bestowed on the doctoral studies considered to be in the top 10% of those submitted.
Her extensive list of presentations includes numerous key notes throughout Australia and internationally, including New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
In 2005 the Canadian Government sent a delegation of Inuit researchers to Western Australia to learn from the experience of Dr Westerman in indigenous suicide prevention. She has developed, evaluated and implemented a range of indigenous specific training packages and intervention programmes throughout Australia, focusing on suicide prevention, depression and trauma management. She has also conducted numerous national tenders and research projects into mental health service delivery specific to indigenous people.
In 2007 Dr Westerman appeared in the Who's Who of Australian Women. In 2006, she was awarded the Suicide Prevention Australia LiFE award for contributions to suicide prevention in indigenous health. In 2002 Dr Westerman was awarded the NAIDOC award for National Scholar of the Year, and currently holds an NHMRC Post Doctoral Research Fellowship (2003-2006) to investigate Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Aboriginal populations. She is the first Aboriginal person to receive such a Fellowship.
Other awards include scholarships with the Australian International Development Assistance Bureau, Graduate Scholarship, 1990-1992, the Department for Community Development (DCD) Scholarship 1995 - 1997, Curtin University Mark Liveris Seminar, School of Health Sciences, PhD presentations, Winner of Certificate of Excellence for Best Oral Presentation for PhD Research.
Dr Monique Faleafa (New Zealand)
Dr Monique Faleafa is the National Manager of Le Va, New Zealand's national Pacific mental health workforce development programme.
Le Va is the Pacific programme within Te Pou, the National Centre of Mental Health Research, Information and Workforce Development. The vision of Le Va is clear: Vibrant leadership and well Pacific families.
Monique has over 10 years experience working at grassroots level for a Pacific NGO as well as DHBs, academic institutions and at the coal face as a clinical psychologist. This has provided a solid foundation for gaining an understanding into the issues that Pacific people in New Zealand face on a day to day basis.
Monique is of Samoan descent, hailing from Lano village in Savaii and Fusi village, Safata in Upolu.
Dr Nicole Coupe (New Zealand)
Dr Coupe (Kai Tahu, Te Atiawa) has worked in Maori suicide prevention investigating the relationship between identity and suicidal behaviour.
She completed her PhD, Whakamomori: Maori suicide prevention, in 2005 and has completed two postdoctoral research papers looking at suicide prevention in primary care and substance use.
Te Ira Tangata evolved from these studies and is looking at cultural assessment for suicide prevention in three DHBs, using the powhiri as a process of engagement.
Dr Simon Hatcher (New Zealand)
Dr Simon Hatcher is an academic psychiatrist at the University of Auckland.
He grew up in Devon in England, trained in London and Yorkshire and has been working in New Zealand since 1994.
He works in the public service and in his clinical role leads a team who see about 650 people a year who present to hospital with self-harm in the Waitemata DHB region.
In his academic role, he teaches and researches on suicide, self-harm, psychotherapy and the problems of general hospital psychiatry.
