Browsing by Author "Peterson, Deborah"

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Quality, Discrimination, and Participation in Mental Health Research
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 2004) Peterson, Deborah
This study focuses on the issues underpinning non-clinical mental health research involving people with experience of mental illness. It examines a participatory action research project undertaken with the New Zealand Mental Health Commission as well as a systematic review of recent non-clinical mental health research, including New Zealand research. The systematic review focuses on the issues that researchers encounter when formulating their research - the ethical, methodological and research design issues that researchers have to address. An equally important issue is the role that people with experience of mental illness play in research. The findings focus on this, as well as the implications for the quality of mental health research, issues of discrimination, and the appropriate use of language in mental health research. This study queries whether people with experience of mental illness should be regarded as incompetent or incapable when seeking informed consent in mental health research, as well as questioning the appropriateness of trying to 'empower' people with experience of mental illness in the research process.
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Secondary school students in paid employment
(Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington, 1995) Peterson, Deborah
The aim of this research is to investigate the employment experiences of secondary school students. In particular, it focuses on a sample of sixth and seventh form students in the Wellington region, who were in paid employment during the first school term of 1994. Amongst the issues addressed are: the type of work the students are involved in; their pay and working conditions; their knowledge of their employment contracts; their reasons for working; the effect that paid wont has on school work. A written questionnaire was distributed to students at four secondary schools in the Wellington region. A total of 219 responses were received. Follow up focus groups were then carried out with volunteers from two of these schools. The results indicate that student workers have a wide variety of employment experiences. Some are not getting the paid holidays and sick leave they are seemingly entitled to, and are receiving low pay, and working long hours doing boring jobs. There are others, though, who are working under reasonable employment conditions for fair (or even high) pay and enjoy what they do. Students who fall into the latter category seem to generally regard this as due to luck that they got that particular job and employer, rather than having any control over the situation themselves. The subsequent discussion explores this finding in relation to the issues of powerlessness and independence. Also highlighted are the lack of knowledge of the Employment Contracts Act and how it applies to the students' own situations, and the negative effects of paid work on school work and the factors associated with them.