Abstract: This thesis examines the rapport building that occurs between rangatahi Māori whaiora (adolescent Māori who use mental health services) and Māori social workers in the field of community mental health. Six Māori social workers were interviewed to explore how they view and practice rapport building with rangatahi Māori whaiora. The Māori social workers were able to provide valuable perspectives based on years of personal and professional experience. The research was conducted using a social constructionist perspective, informed and guided by Māori-centred research principles. A qualitative research method was used and both Massey University and Māori ethical considerations thoroughly explored. Face to face interviews guided by an integrated practice framework, enabled the voices of the Māori social workers to be heard, eliciting in detail where their views have come from. The findings from the research showed that Māori social workers view rapport as essential in their practice and therefore they practice in a way that facilitates this with rangatahi. The social workers utilise their values and beliefs in their practice, according to their worldview; how they were raised; what they have experienced, and what they have learned. Specifically, Māori social workers identified the importance of practicing with a Māori worldview, therefore enabling physical connection, spiritual connection, and cultural connection with the rangatahi. These all contributed towards rapport building with the rangatahi and also their whānau. The importance of action reflection processes were also highlighted. This is due to the balance required from Māori social workers to fulfil the needs of the rangatahi as aligned with their values and beliefs, while meeting the requirements of the organisation, profession and wider community. This thesis explores these key findings.

Abstract: The research takes an autoethnographical approach to exploring the connections between being a nurse, doing nursing work, and experiencing a mental illness.
Data is comprosed of autoethnographical stories from 18 nurses. Drawing on Lyotard's (1988) postmodern philosophy of 'regimes of phrases' and 'genres of discourse', the nurses' stories yeilded three motifs: Nursing, Tangata Whaiora (people seeking wellness) and Bullying. Motifs ate recurring topical, emotional and contextual patterns which have been created in this research by means of the formation of collective stories from the content of the nurses' stories, artwork, ficitonal vignettes and poetry.
Interpretation of the motigs was undertaken by identifying and exploring connected or dissenting aspectis within and between the motifs. Using Fine's (1994) notion of hyphenated lives, the spaces between these aspects were conceptualised as hyphens. The Nursing motif revealed a hyophen between the notion of the nurses as selfless and tireless carers, and the mastery requirements of professionalism. The nurses' hope for caring, belonging, expertise and 'goodness' were also features of the nursing motif. The Tangata Whaiora motif revealed the hyphen between being a compliant patient and a self-determined person seeking wellness, and also foreshadowed the notion that the nursing identity does not 'permit' the dual identities of nurse and tangata whaiora.
This research ahs found that nurses who have experience, or are vulnerable to, mental illness negotiate a nexus of hyphens between societal, professional and personal expectations of the nurse. Ongoing unsuccessful negotiation of their identities is exhausting and leads to enduring distress. At times, negotiation is not possible and the nurse is immobilised in a differend of silence and injustice. At such times, the only resolution possible for the nurse is to leave the nursing profession. Bullying surfaced as a feature of the hypohen between the nursing and tangata whaiora identities, as well as being a part of each identity as colonising, silencing and/or discriminatory acts.
Successful negotiation between and among the nursing and tangata whaiora hyphens requires a radical restructuring of the nursing image and culture across the education, workplace and personal/clinical areas. Three strategies are proposed for the discipline of nursing to achieve this cahnge: transformatory education, a conscientisation programme, and mandatory emanicpatory clinical supervision.