Lifeline Research Newsletter October Issue final version (1)-8

LIFELINE RESEARCH NEWSLETTER Issue 1
Lifeline
Research
Newsletter
October
`, October
EDITORIAL TEAM: CHRISTINE Y DONG AND CAITLIN SMART IN THIS ISSUE
Hi everyone, we are the newly
appointed volunteer research
assistants. Assisting Christine this
summer are Meagan, Caren, Robert,
Kelly and Caitlin. We are based in the
support office in Greenlane,
Auckland.
We have already started our
research training, and we expect that
Christine will turn us into bona fide
research assistants over the summer.
We’ve already learnt how to properly
enter data, and we are looking
forward to all the other training
workshops we have planned.
We are focusing on several different
projects over the next year: An
overview of Chinese Lifeline; Client
profile, client experiences and
clinical effectiveness for Face to Face
Counselling; Intermediate school
kids’ and their parents’ and teachers’
awareness, needs, attitudes and
experiences with Kidline; Helpline
volunteers’ motivations,
expectations and experience;
Training evaluation for helpline
volunteers; A Lifeline 24/7 Service
Evaluation; and the impact of peer-
support helpline services for mental
health clients.
Many of the projects are in
collaboration with the University of
Auckland and/or DHBs. We are
always looking for more
collaborations and partnerships, and
we are welcome all sort of research
ideas that can benefit the clients,
staff and/or the service, so if you
have a group in mind, we would love
for you to send us an email.
We will also use this newsletter as a
method to communicate dates and
times for future research seminars,
as well as share any gold-standard
research that we’ve come across.
Chinese Lifeline Evaluation
A summary of findings
Page 3
Team Bios
A brief introduction to our team members
Page 2
Feature Article
Welcome to the Research Team
Author: Caitlin Smart
For more info contact us on research@lifeline.org.nz

LIFELINE RESEARCH NEWSLETTER | Issue 1 2
Christine has been working as a
quantitative researcher and
statistician for over 8 years. Before
joining the Lifeline team as research
manager, she previously worked for
the CMDHB and the University of
Auckland, where she is still an
honorary research fellow. She has
been involved in many projects in
mental health research and related
fields. When not publishing in
internationally recognized journals,
she enjoys travelling, watching
cartoons and cooking.
Megan is a trained nurse and worked
for four years in a mental health
setting. She recently returned from
the UK, nursing older adults in a
community setting, and is now
taking a break from a clinical setting
to open up opportunities for both
research and education in healthcare
settings.
Carnette, also known as Caren, has
been a researcher for several years.
With a background in Biology and
Environmental Science, Caren has
been involved in many diverse
projects ranging from banana
micropropagation and the
conservation of orchards in the
Philippinnes to preventing the onset
of chronic diseases like type 2
diabetes and obesity in Singapore,
which sparked her interest in
community health and wellbeing.
Caren loves to travel and try new
things- she always eat something
new in every place she visits.
Kelly was born in NZ but her parents
are from China. She is a recent
graduate of the University of Otago,
majoring in Psychology. She is
aiming towards a career in mental
health as she is passionate about the
wellbeing of people around her. She
has a particular interest in forensic
psychology and human
development, and you may see her
around as a helpline volunteer in
training.
Robert is originally from South
Sudan and moved to NZ in 2004. He
is in his third year of a degree in
Health Promotion, and has been
with Lifeline on a student placement
since July. He enjoys the holistic
approach that health promotion
provides, and says that health
promotion values are highly intrinsic
in the notion of empowerment and
capacity building. When he’s not
working with the AUT’s student
experience team, he can be found
reading, volunteering or shooting
some hoops.
Caitlin is proud to come from West
Auckland and in her first year of a
degree in Statistics and Computer
Science. She can be found either
coding or getting involved in a
diverse range of youth led projects
and youth work. Numbers are her
first language but feel free to say hi
to her in any other language
RESEARCH TIP
There are two categories in the
sources of data collection for
research: primary sources and
secondary sources. A primary source
is where you collect new data
specifically for the research purpose
(e.g. questionnaire or interview), and
a secondary source is when you
borrow existing data to answer your
research questions (e.g. data from
Statistics NZ or helpline data
collected for business purposes).
Team Bio
The Research Team
From L to R: Caitlin, Caren, Christine,
Robert, Kelly and Meagan

Logistics
Each month, 50-60 Mandarin and/or Cantonese
speaking helpline volunteers receive 200-300 calls.
Ages and Stages
Many different generations use Chinese Lifeline for
over-the-phone help. Over 40% of callers were between
21 and 30, but there were also a significant number of
callers in their 30s (28%) and their 40s and 50s (23%)
FAST FACTS
85.1%The proportion of calls in which the top issue was mental
health
87%The proportion of multiple presenting problem calls
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Christine Y Dong, Research Manager at
EMAIL CHRISTINED@LIFELINE.ORG.NZ
Phone (09) 909 9212
In New Zealand, Chinese Lifeline has
been established for over 20 years since
1993. It provides confidential and private
helpline services to all people who would
like to talk through their issues in
Mandarin or Cantonese. The service has
about 50-60 well trained helpline
volunteers to answer the calls. The
helpline volunteers have been collecting
data on clients’ demographics, reason of
calls, expectations and outcomes etc.
Aim
The aim of this project is to understand
the clients’ profile and clinical
characteristics of the callers for Chinese
Lifeline, as well as evaluate the
outcomes. In turn, it will provide useful
information and evidences in the area of
Chinese people accessing and utilising
community mental health helpline
services in New Zealand.
Method
This project is an observational
descriptive study involving historical file
reviews. For call statistics, it includes all
the calls offered in financial year (FY)
2013-14. For caller profile and outcome
evaluation, a 20% random sample
stratified by month of the calls was
pulled out from all the files in FY 2013-
14. Descriptive statistical analyses and
statistical tests and regressions were
undertaken where appropriate.
Main Findings
Call Statistics: Each month, there were
about 200-300 calls offered to Chinese
Lifeline per month. The annual average
length of the calls was 22 minutes and
annual average length of handling work
after the calls was 10 minutes.
Caller profile:
 Demographics: The majority of
the calls were made up by
females (90.5%). More than
40% of the calls were with
young adults 21-30 years,
twenty-eight of the calls were
with age group 31-40 and 23%
of the calls were with age group
41-60 years. In addition, most
of the calls were made by
singles (41%) or married people
(43%). Regular callers made up
just over one-third of the calls.
 Type of the calls: Overall, there
Lifeline Research Project of the
Month
Chinese Lifeline Overview Project by Christine Yang Dong
Christine Y Dong, Research
Manager at Lifeline
EXCEL TIP
You can remove duplicates automatically by
using Excel rather than going through the
list manually. Go to “Data” tab, click
“remove duplicates” and select the
identification variable(s)

were 8% of the general enquiry calls with no presenting problems (non-counselling calls) and 92% of the calls were counselling
calls. The 92% counselling calls were made up by 5% (n=8) of single presenting problem calls and 87% of
multiple presenting problems calls.
 Main presenting problems: The top presenting
problems recorded were: 1) mental health issues (82%;
95% CI [75.9%, 88.3%]); 2) family/partner relationship
issues (47%; 95% CI [39.0%, 55.1%]); 3) communication
and related difficulties (45%; 95% CI [37.0%,53.1%]); 4)
peers/friends/employer/e and other relationship issues
(33%); 5) work and education related concerns (27%);
and 6) grief and loss (23%).
 Top 1 presenting problems for:
o Female: Relationship issues - with family
o Male: mental health issues - stress
o Age group (<30 years): mental health issues -
depression
o Age group (>30 years): relationship issues –
with family
o Regular callers: mental health issues -
loneliness
o First time/several times callers: mental health
issues - stress
Brief outcome evaluation:
 Results of the calls: Overall, the majority of the calls
(65%) were ended after a decision was made in how to
overcome the caller’s issues.
 Volunteers satisfaction of the calls and factors
influencing their satisfaction: The helpline’s volunteers
were either satisfied or very satisfied with their part of
the calls in the majority of the times (77%). Helpline
volunteers were more likely to be satisfied with the
calls if 1) the caller’s age is up to 30 years (compared
to >30 years), 2) not a regular caller (compared to
regular caller), 3) relationship problems with people
other than family/partner were not discussed
(compared to this issue was discussed) or 4) physical
problems were not discussed in the conversation
(compared to this issue was discussed) while holding
the other factors constant.
 Factors influencing length of call: The length of call
was more likely to be longer than 30 minutes if 1)
mental health issues was one of the presenting
problems (vs. not having this problem), 2) grief and loss
issues was one of the presenting problems (vs. not
having this problem), 3) communication and related
difficulties was one of the presenting problems (vs., not
having this problem) while holding the other factors
constant.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Contact Christine Y Dong, Research Manager
EMAIL CHRISTINED@LIFELINE.ORG.NZ
Phone (09) 909 9212

A summary of the literature review
“Bullying Issues in Children between 2 and
10 years of age ”
Introduction
Researchers recognise bullying as an
important health promotion subject in
preschools and primary school
environments as this can greatly affect
children’s mental health (Juvonen, &
Graham, 2014). In New Zealand, pre-
schoolers are children between 2-5 years
old, and primary school children are
between 5 and 10 years old. Mental
health is well-defined as experience
relating to individual’s psychological and
emotional wellbeing (Forero, McLellan,
Rissel, & Bauman, 1999). This article
summarises some of the main findings
from a literature review around bullying
in preschools and primary schools and
the health promotion strategies.
Main findings concerning bullying pre-
schools and primary school, and
mental wellbeing of children
There are several risk factors of bullying
in the target age group based on the
findings from previous research. Often
dissimilar power dynamics among
infants are thought to increase bullying
encounters if children are
unsupervised. Gender can be another
risk factor. Rigby theorises in 2013 that
boys in particularly engage in what is
known as an active and more direct form
bullying, whereas girls partake in
indirect forms of bullying behaviours.
One good example is the spread of
malicious rumours targeting victims or
their associates, which is often
perpetrated by girls (Rigby, 2013). Other
demographic factors can also influence
what forms of bullying will be present,
such as ethnicity and socioeconomic
status. Changes in technology can also
affect how bullying presents itself- for
example, with the increased prevalence
of personal technology devices, indirect
occurrences of bullying are easier to
initiate. The type of bullying can also
predispose children to react either
aggressively or submissively to bullying
(Rigby & Johnson, 2006). Similar studies
BULLYING FACTS
Literature review of the month
by Robert Ring, volunteer research assistant; edited by Caitlin Smart
Permanent Record
Young people who bully have a
one in four chance of having a
criminal record by the age of 30
(according to Kidspot)
A Global Problem
An estimated 200 million children
and youth around the globe are
being bullied by people their own
age (according to Kidspot)

have demonstrated that bullying
behaviours often occur in two or more
scenarios, with one scenario containing
a verbal aspect and the other a physical
aspect.
There are serious negative impacts of
being bullied at school. For example, a
study from the United State indicates
that about 160 000 students are
periodically absent from school due to
victimisation and fears of retaliation,
while Rigby (2013) demonstrated that
one in six youths are frequently bullied in
school environments in both Australia
and New Zealand. Many studies have
found bullying to be a high risk factor in
cases of depression, mental health
issues (e.g. emotional breakdowns),
stress, and behavioural disorders.
(Coggan et al., 2003, & Rigby, 2005).
What is most concerning is how the
perception of verbal teasing can
negatively affect the health of children.
Rigby and Johnson (2006) explain that
verbal bullying is seen as an everyday
occurrence, as their study reports that
about 22% of primary students are often
engaging in that act. Juvonen & Graham
(2014) indicate that the effects and
experience of being chronically bullied
as a child can lead to persistent negative
outcomes even in adulthood e.g.
increased risk of depression and anxiety,
the presence of suicidal ideation. Studies
support the notion that interpersonal
experiences of bullying can also affect
victims, oppressors, and bystanders.
However, research finds children to be
lacking specific awareness regarding the
impact of being bullying especially with
short-term and long-term health issues,
In order to minimise and reduce bullying
encounters for children, it is important
for health organisations and the
education sector to increase co-
operation and promote awareness
around bullying (Langford, Bonell,
Jones, Pouliou, Murphy, Waters, &
Campbell, 1999). An effective response
would involve parents, teachers,
communities and children with the help
of organisations in the education and
health sectors. Studies have shown that
people who are bullied in an earlier age
are more likely to suffer adverse effects
from the bullying experiences.
Therefore, it is important to increase
children’s’ responsiveness and
realisation of bullying as negative
behaviour in order to improve their
immediate health and health longevity.
Studies have also suggested that
normalising peer support around
schooling environments with the
sponsorship of incorporated
organisations may improve children’s
health wellbeing.
Further Research needed
There is currently a lack of research
around bullying, particularly within a
New Zealand context.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there have been many
concerns regarding the correlation
between school bullying and health
longevity. Developing health promotion
programmes and strategies which target
pre-schoolers and primary school aged
children is essential for child
development and
growth. Studies
suggest that
these plans can

be achieved through collaborative effort and co-operation
among teachers, health organisation and health educators, as
well as wider community scholarship for prevention and
interventional approach.
References
Forero, R., McLellan, L., Rissel, C., & Bauman, A. (1999). Bullying
behaviour and psychosocial health among school students in
New South Wales, Australia: cross
Juvonen, J., & Graham, S. (2014). Bullying in schools: The power
of bullies and the plight of victims. Annual Review of
Psychology, 65, 159-185.doi:10.1146/annurev-psych- 010213-
115030
Juvonen, J., Wang, Y., & Espinoza, G. (2011). Bullying
experiences and compromised
academic performance across middle school grades.
Journal of Early Adolescence, 31(1), 152-173
Karstadt, L., & Woods, S. (1999). The school bullying problem.
Nursing Standard, 14(11), 32-35. doi:
http://dx.doi.org/10.7748/ns1999.12.14.11.32.c2721.
Langford, R., Bonell, C. P., Jones, H. E., Pouliou, T., Murphy, S.
M., Waters, E., & Campbell, R. (2014). The WHO Health
Promoting School framework for improving the health
and well-being of students and their academic achievement.
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 4. doi:
10.1002/14651858.CD008958.pub2
Rigby, K., & Johnson, B. (2006). Expressed readiness of
Australian schoolchildren to act as bystanders in support of
children who are being bullied. Educational psychology, 26(3),
425-440.Doi: 10.1080/01443410500342047
.Rigby, K. (2013). Bullying in schools and its relation to parenting
and family life. Family Matters, (92), 61.
WORD TIP
Did you know that you can create an
automatic table of contents using
Word? Just go to the ‘References’ tab
(image 1) and click ‘table of contents’
(image 2). You will need to make sure
all headings and subheadings in your
document are in the right format so
then they can be captured in the
automatic table of contents (image
3).
Lifeline
Research
Newsletter
95 Great South Road
Auckland

Lifeline in-house events and
seminars
On the 24th
of September we hosted
a very successful seminar on the
findings of the Chinese Lifeline
Research.
This November, we are expecting to
have a one hour research seminar at
our Auckland office as well as one-
to-two half hour seminars. Possible
topics include a presentation from
Robert on his literature review “What
are effective health promotion
strategies for children in relation to
bullying?” and a presentation on the
main findings from the 24/7 helpline
volunteers training evaluation. The
date and times of these seminars will
be published soon.
External events and seminars
There are also several other events in
the community that may be of
interest:
Telling Compelling Stories With
Numbers
4-5pm 11th
November 2014
OGGB5, Owen G Glenn Building,
University of Auckland
Stephen Few is on a mission to help
people squeeze real value from the
mounds of data that surround and
threaten to bury them. Through his
consultancy Perceptual Edge, he
promotes simple, clear, and practical
data visualization techniques for
analyzing and presenting
quantitative information. He speaks
and teaches internationally, writes
the quarterly Visual Business
Intelligence Newsletter, and is the
author of three popular books: Show
Me the Numbers: Designing Tables
and Graphs to Enlighten,
Information Dashboard Design: The
Effective Visual Communication of
Data, and Now You See It: Simple
Visualization Techniques for
Quantitative Analysis. You can learn
more about his work at
www.perceptualedge.com
CMHSE Seminar: Does Fatigue
Matter in Health Care?
12:30-1:30pm, 20th
October 2014
Building 503, Seminar Room 503-
126, Grafton Campus
Can we manage fatigue by using
countermeasures? What is fatigue-
safe rostering and is there a scientific
way of measuring the impact of
rostered and actual hours of
work?The discussion will focus on
what the individual and the
organisation can do to reduce
fatigue risk.
Fiona Johnston is Director of
Shiftwork Services, occupational
therapist for Waitemata DHB and
author of a range of books and
publications about sleep and coping
with shiftwork. Her interest is sleep,
fatigue and managing the 24/7
workplace. Since 1995 she has been
providing high risk organisations
with advice and systems to help
improve sleep and reduce fatigue in
workplace.
She uses applications and systems
developed by The Centre for Sleep
Research, University of South
Australia and Zurich Risk Engineers
as well as practical know-how to help
individuals who are engaged in
safety critical tasks to reduce the risk
of making mistakes due to fatigue.
Please RSVP to Francoise Godet at
f.godet@auckland.ac.nz by the 14th
of October. A light lunch will be
provided.
The Asian Network Inc. General
Network Meeting: Supporting better
access to Health and Social Services
10am-12pm 12th
November 2014
Pearce St. Hall, Onehunga
Community Centre, 1 Pearce St,
Onehunga
Presentations include “Language
Line for non-English speakers, how it
works.” With Diana Clark, language
line manager for the Office of Ethnic
Affairs; “Healthline for healthcare
consumers” with Anne Obrien,
Relationship manager at Medibank
Health Solutions; and “Seniorline for
older people” with Jude Mowbay,
Seniorline Project Manager at
ADHB. There will also be
opportunities for introductions,
networking, and updates on
community news.
Asian style refreshments and drinks
will be provided. Please RSVP to
Samuel Cho at
samuel.cho@asiannetwork.org.nz
for catering purposes.
Research Seminars and Events

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