In the Media

Lovely Dizon often speaks up for her parents at doctor’s appointments when people assume the Filipino couple don’t speak English. Her dentist mum and electrician dad have been in New Zealand for 23 years.

Another time, a doctor did not believe Dizon’s answer to a question about sexual health.

Tiny interactions like these have made the 26-year-old PhD student hesitant to get help when she suffered from anxiety and disordered eating in high school and university.

“The systems we have in New Zealand are very European-centric and those ways of thinking aren’t necessarily helpful for non-Pakeha,” she said.

A study looking into a survey of highschool students has found that experiences of racism and discrimination keep young asian people from accessing health services in New Zealand. News and Editorial Director Jemima Huston interviews Dr Roshini Peirs-John, Associate Professor at the School of Population Health in Auckland and co-investigator in this study. They talk about what the study entailed, the Youth19 survey it’s based on and why it is important to break down the catchall ethnicity term ‘Asian’ into more specific Asian ethnic groupings to provide better health policies and data.

A new report, Youth19, is the latest in the Youth2000 survey series which asks more than 7000 students about everything from family life to sexual activity.

It highlights health and wellbeing findings for Asian students in Aotearoa – their strengths, challenges, and experiences are mapped out in this.

Nikki Singh, who is Fiji-Indian, and Lovely Dizon, Filipina, both in their early 20s, were involved in the research and co-authored parts of this report.