Welcome to week two of our six week talanoa series, Ngalu Fānifo – A new wave for mental well-being” a Pasifika Futures commissioned initiative in response to Pacific community demand.

“Ngalu Fānifo will ensure our Pacific families will have access to a skilled and trained workforce of practitioners who understand the context of our lives, understand our uniqueness and diversity and who can access the resources families need to manage their own mental health challenges.

Ngalu Fānifo is a Tongan term that refers to surfing the waves and in the context of our mental health service, it’s essentially a new wave for mental-wellbeing. It acts as a metaphor where one is riding the wave of emotions until you reach a smooth landing.

Ngalu refers to all the different types of waves;

• There are unexpected ones,
• There are ones you can see from afar,
• There are big ones,
• There are short ones,
• There are sudden ones and
• There are rough ones.

Fānifo is the art of riding these waves.

Ngalu Fānifo, speaks of accepting those challenges (waves) are inevitable and instead of succumbing to them as though fate has already been decided, we embrace and see them as opportunities to apply and live out our values even more.

Today we are looking at different coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety for Pacific families”

We welcome back Dr Siale Foliaki, clinical lead for Ngalu Fanifo. Dr Foliaki (MBCHB FRANZCP) is a graduate of the Otago University School of Medicine and became a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2006. He has dual fellowship as both an adult and child psychiatrist and has held senior clinical roles within the Counties Manukau District Health Board as a Consultant Psychiatrist. Dr. Foliaki has many years of clinical experience in addiction psychiatry and has been active in psychiatric research.