Best health outcomes for Maori - Medical Council of New Zealand

Case studies continued...
family that might have an impact on Matiu, and they talked
of his younger sister who had been abused by a babysitter
and who was having counselling for this after finally telling
her mother what had happened when she was young. Matiu
made no comment on this, and in the end I confronted him
gently, saying that I did not believe that he was so unwell
that he could not talk, and that I felt he was angry. He finally
began to talk to his whänau, angrily telling his mother that
his sister was not the only one molested, and that he had
been as well, but had been unable to tell them. He talked
of his anger that the family circumstances at that time had
allowed this man to have access to the children, and that his
mother should have prevented it somehow.
Matiu and his mother wept, and she comforted him, and
they were able to talk about it with less anger and more
understanding. There was no sign of any psychosis at all,
and it was clear that his rage and pain about the abuse was
the key reason for his admission and prior behaviour. Just
Best health outcomes for Mäori: Case studies
in talking to his whänau and especially his mother about
the abuse, his healing had begun, and it was within the
safe structure of a whänau meeting with proper rituals of
opening and closure that he finally felt able to manage
this. In this context, his whänau had also felt safe
enough to raise the issue of abuse affecting his sister,
and without them broaching the topic I doubt that he
would have been able to talk of his own abuse.
This whänau meeting was intense and charged with
feelings, and even after we had talked of helping Matiu
arrange counselling and about setting in place crisis
team support after discharge, it was essential to have
the meeting closed formally, with another short speech
and a prayer, so that everyone could wind down and
manage ordinary tasks again. After the meeting we all
shared a pot of tea and some biscuits, and that was
also important to the whole process, before Matiu was
discharged to the care of his whänau.”