Doctoral Student Profile

Waikaremoana Waitoki

Supervisors: Neville Robertson, Jane Ritchie

Cultural competency training in Aotearoa:  Translating multicultural training into a bicultural context
Waikaremoana has developed and evaluated a cultural competency training programme for clinical psychology students who work with Māori consumers. The international and national cultural competency literature, a pilot programme, and a training needs analysis, formed the basis of the training programme. The pilot programme was delivered to 14 university students enrolled in a clinical diploma programme. A retrospective questionnaire was administered 3 months later to the pilot programme participants to identify gaps in their knowledge, skills and behaviour. A training needs analysis was conducted with 30 experienced clinical psychologists, and cultural advisors who had worked with Māori consumers. The training needs analysis sought to identify the knowledge, skills and behaviours that the psychologists possessed in order to work effectively with Māori. The data from the pilot programme, and the training needs analysis was analysed and included in the final programme. This programme was delivered at two university sites over a two-day period using intern psychologist.  The trainee’s case conceptualisation ability was the focus of this evaluation method. Future uses of this research will be in developing and evaluating training programmes and developing appropriate methods of assessing cultural appropriate standards of practice for clinicians working with Māori and diverse cultural populations.