Wellbeing survived quakes – stats

Resilient Cantabrians’ level of overall life satisfaction remained undiminished throughout the earthquakes that shook the region, and the long recovery effort that followed, according to official wellbeing statistics.

It is a result that even perplexes Statistics NZ, which would have expected to see dips in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

As part of its Good Life Guide, The Press scrutinised the wellbeing statistics, and noticed that in March 2009, Cantabrians scored roughly at the national average for subjective selfassessed overall life satisfaction, and they still did in 2011, and in 2013, in 2016, and again in 2018.

‘‘The earthquakes haven’t had large detrimental effects on our population,’’ said Ben Beaglehole, senior lecturer at the University of Otago Christchurch.

‘‘By and large people’s insurance schemes worked pretty well, a lot of money got pumped into the city, and things are beginning to look okay.’’

There may have been a survivorship boost that comes from people finding out how resilient they really were in the face of adversity.

‘‘You can get strength through adversity,’’ Beaglehole said.

Surveys done by the nowdisbanded Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority showed a relatively stable proportion of Cantabrians with a positive view of their overall wellbeing, even though immediate positive after-effects of surviving the earthquakes, such as a renewed appreciation for life, and pride at their ability to cope faded.

‘‘Going through adversity isn’t the worst thing sometimes,’’ said Duane Major, whose home in Spreydon avoided major damage.

‘‘It reminds us of our humanity.’’ Major, who hit national fame for his part in organising the purchase of an iconic Abel Tasman beach, had seen both positive and negative wellbeing impacts on individuals in the aftermath of the earthquakes.

Adversity faced together by a community could also strengthen that community, he believed.

But the unfluctuating line of a headline statistic may obscure the experiences, negative and positive, of people in the population it measures.

Beaglehole said behind the statistics would be people who had seen life satisfaction slip, but whose experience may be cancelled out in the headline figures by those who experienced positive things in the

‘‘Going through adversity isn’t the worst thing sometimes.’’ Duane Major

earthquakes’ aftermath, or become enriched by them.

‘‘There’s probably an exposure effect. ‘‘The most highly impacted people who lost their houses, and never managed to sort out their insurance, will have suffered from detrimental effects.’’

Nearly a decade on, there are still many people whose homes have not been repaired, despite having had insurance cover.

‘‘I’m dealing with people who are broken, suicidal, can’t carry on with life, and they are not on their own,’’ said Adrian Cowie, a surveyor who has been involved in more than 100 battles homeowners have had with insurers and EQC.

They felt isolated and bullied by the insurers and the government-owned EQC which were meant to protect them, Cowie said.

Other groups’ wellbeing had been hit too.

Beaglehole studied the psychological impacts of the earthquakes on people with mental ill-health, and found they accessed more health services after the earthquakes.

But some Cantabrians’ voices may have been lost to Stats NZ.

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes in Christchurch and Kaikoura, Stats NZ stopped interviewing in badly hit areas, such as the Red Zone in Christchurch, said Rosemary Goodyear, a design analyst with Stats NZ.

It was both a matter of being sensitive to people’s trauma, and also the difficulty and potential danger of continuing to conduct the face-to-face interviews from which the Wellbeing data is generated.

Children’s voices were also not captured by in the wellbeing statistics as Stats NZ only interviews people aged 15 and over, said Goodyear, whose home was not badly damaged in the quake.

‘‘The main impact has been on the mental health of my kids. It’s impacted them quite significantly,’’ Goodyear said.

This article is part of the Good Life Guide, an editorial project sponsored by Skoda. We have produced it independently, to the same standards applied to the rest of our journalism.