Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Improve Rural Mental Health Care
Tracks
Prince
| Friday, November 6, 2026 |
| 11:05 AM - 11:25 AM |
Overview
Philip Ferris-Day, Massey University
Three Key Learnings
1. First, policy language actively shapes clinical expectations. Using critical discourse analysis and Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?”, the presentation shows how spatial‑logistical framings and engagement‑centric framings define what counts as appropriate action in rural mental health practice.
2. Second, these framings travel directly into everyday work, influencing language, referral thresholds, risk judgements, and the allocation of responsibility for change among clinicians, services, and service users.
3. Third, clinicians are not powerless. By identifying dominant problem representations, reframing deficit language, and using Te Whare Tapa Whā as a practice comparator, clinicians can intentionally reshape practice equitably within existing mental health systems.
Presenter
Mr Philip Ferris-Day
Senior Lecturer
Massey University
Using Critical Discourse Analysis to Improve Rural Mental Health Care
Presentation Overview
A sustainable and integrated rural mental health system relies not only on service availability but also on a workforce that is visible, supported, and capable in ways that uphold mana, safety, and shared responsibility within complex systems. In Aotearoa New Zealand, repeated mental health reforms have expanded services and access pathways; however, the mental health and wellbeing workforce continues to face high levels of burnout, moral distress, gendered workplace harm, and attrition—particularly in rural areas. While peer and lived-experience roles are increasingly recognised as crucial to system transformation, workforce well-being and retention remain insufficiently addressed in funding, commissioning, and governance frameworks.
Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach, this presentation explores how workforce sustainability is framed and obscured within mental health and rural health policy. Despite strong rhetoric about access, integration, and service expansion, workforce challenges are primarily defined by recruitment pipelines and training metrics. In contrast, retention, psychosocial safety, cultural and relational labour, and leadership conditions are marginalised, contributing to the normalisation of over-functioning and the individualisation of burnout.
The session redefines burnout prevention as a system design and leadership duty, rather than a personal resilience problem, and highlights system navigation as a key leadership skill for the mental health and AOD workforce. Participants are guided to understand how funding processes, commissioning arrangements, accountability mechanisms, and cross-sector interfaces influence daily practice. Practical strategies are shared for identifying structural causes of moral injury, negotiating safe and realistic scopes of practice, and advocating effectively at the service, commissioning, and policy levels.
Reflecting Pae Ora principles and Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments to partnership, participation, and protection, the presentation emphasises collective, boundary-protective, and inclusive leadership approaches that strengthen workforce wellbeing, sustain diverse roles, and support ethical, humane rural mental health systems.
Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to be?” (WPR) approach, this presentation explores how workforce sustainability is framed and obscured within mental health and rural health policy. Despite strong rhetoric about access, integration, and service expansion, workforce challenges are primarily defined by recruitment pipelines and training metrics. In contrast, retention, psychosocial safety, cultural and relational labour, and leadership conditions are marginalised, contributing to the normalisation of over-functioning and the individualisation of burnout.
The session redefines burnout prevention as a system design and leadership duty, rather than a personal resilience problem, and highlights system navigation as a key leadership skill for the mental health and AOD workforce. Participants are guided to understand how funding processes, commissioning arrangements, accountability mechanisms, and cross-sector interfaces influence daily practice. Practical strategies are shared for identifying structural causes of moral injury, negotiating safe and realistic scopes of practice, and advocating effectively at the service, commissioning, and policy levels.
Reflecting Pae Ora principles and Te Tiriti o Waitangi commitments to partnership, participation, and protection, the presentation emphasises collective, boundary-protective, and inclusive leadership approaches that strengthen workforce wellbeing, sustain diverse roles, and support ethical, humane rural mental health systems.
Biography
Philip Ferris‑Day is a Senior Lecturer at Massey University, School of Nursing, in Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Philip has extensive experience in mental health nursing, education, and practice development. His research interests include rural mental health, health equity, and the use of critical discourse analysis and Bacchi’s “What’s the Problem Represented to Be?” approach to examine how policy and system narratives shape clinical practice and professional roles.
