Lay summary
Previous research with Pacific and Maori in the mental health domain has valued cultural conceptualisations of health and wellbeing. However, little progress has been made towards embedding culturally focused programmes into health and mental health provision. The Indigenous Solutions Research Programme, involves a joint partnership between, Te Rau Matatini (Maori) and the Family Centre (Pacific) pursuing four research projects. These projects will provide a suite of innovative, culturally focused and community based programmes. They will ensure that young people in particular, but also people throughout the life course, are given access to culturally responsive prevention and early intervention approaches that will lead to better mental health outcomes. This implementation-focused research will enable the application of indigenous approaches to increase mental health resilience. It will be focussed on prevention and designed to increase the capacity of service provision and policy applications for Maori and Pacific families, communities and mental health workers.