Dougal Sutherland: Umbrella Wellbeing psychologist on Stats NZ releasing official ‘wellbeing’ data for New Zealand

Stats NZ has published the latest official wellbeing data - revealing whether or not Kiwis' satisfaction with life has dipped.

Despite two years of economic turmoil and recession, people's overall satisfaction with life is at a 7.6 out of 10 - a similar rating to 2021, when the economy was better.

Umbrella Wellbeing psychologist Dougal Sutherland says Kiwis have always have had something to worry about, which disrupts quality of life.

"We worry about certain things - in 2021, we were all worried about Covid and now we're worried about the economy and a bit about crime and a bit about healthcare. Maybe this is generally how it is."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's something interesting. Apparently, according to this wellness data that's
just out from Stats New Zealand, those of us here
in New Zealand are pretty satisfied with our lives. The
overall satisfaction rating that we've given is seven point six
out of ten, which actually isn't that different to twenty
eleven or twenty twenty one, sorry, which was you know,
you remember COVID times. We were actually feeling pretty good

(00:21):
at that stage. The rest of the world was dying
and we weren't. Google Sutherland is a clinical psychologist. Hey, Google, Hey,
are you that nice to speak to you? It's good
to talk to you too. Now, are you surprised that
our well being and happiness is holding up so well
given how gloomy we are at the moment in general?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah? Look I was awe But then when I dug
into the stats, it was like, oh, no, that does
seem to be reflective of the kind of general temperature
of society at the moment, you know. But yeah, I
guess perhaps it was more positive than what you might
be believed to see if you're wandering around the streets
of Wellington.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So is it possible that what this says is we
are actually happy in general with our lives and our
lifestyle and the country. We know we've got it good.
It's just that we're unhappy and we're gloomy about the
trajectory of the country, like the economy and the health
system and so on.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Look, it could be. I mean another interpretation is that
we you know, we're sort of sitting there or thereabouts
most of the time, and that at particular points of
time we worry about certain things, like I'm sure in
twenty twenty one we're all worried about COVID, and now
you know, we're worried about the economy and a bit
about crime and a bit about healthcare. So maybe this

(01:32):
is just generally how it is, and that there's always
something to worry about, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
What do you make though of the decline of trust
in a bunch of institutions and in particular in Parliament,
which has fallen quite quite a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
Yeah, Look, that saddens me a bit, but doesn't surprise me.
I think we've seen trust levels and a lot of
those institutions slipping, particularly around the media in Parliament, and
I think it reflects a bit more of a general
distrust that people seem to be having with, you know,
with the general institutions of life. People's trust seems to

(02:07):
have been eroded over the past few years.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
That seems to be like something quite big that needs
to be addressed, don't you.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Think I do? I do? I think so. I think
I think we're If we're talking about some of the
key kind of institutions of our society, police, government, media,
then it's I think it's important that people do have
trust and faith in those and if we don't, then
we need to look at how do we win that
trust back and how do we not convince people? Because

(02:36):
I think I don't think convincing people would work, But
how do we how do we prove to people it's
maybe a better way of doing it that those institutions
are actually important and trustworthy.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Where would you put yourself out of ten.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
I would put myself at about six point five. I
think I'm in Wellington. Yeah, yeah, so it's I'm not
singing from the from the roof, but I'm not completely
down on the dumps either. But it does feel a
bit a bit doomy and gloomy here, at least in Wellington.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Is this I mean to be fair to you. You
have just come through a Wellington winter, and I mean
that is a rough time, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well yeah, but nobody chooses to live here because of
the weather, that we take that as a given that
it's never going to be that great. But you do
touch on an interesting thing is you know often our
mood does drop a little bit during winter, and then
you know, in spring we pop up again. And I
noticed that myself in the past couple of weeks, just
standing out on a balcony, going, oh, actually the sun's

(03:37):
coming up and there's blossom out and it kind of
feels spring light and there's more light around. So I
don't think we should neglect the fact that the environment
has a bit of an impact on it.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Do you take vitamin D to get you through the winter?

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I do not know why not. I never thought of it,
to be honest, I don't feel like I've got a
I haven't tested it, but I don't feel like I've
got a vitamin D deficiency. But I do try and
get out. I try and get out in the morning
and at least three or four times during the week
in daylight during winter, just to get that that SODAD

(04:10):
in again.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah, yeah, well good for you, Okay, Google, thank you Google,
Suther and clinical psychologist, I think Google needs to take
vitamin D. I reckon he'd go from a six point
five to a solid eight point five if he's taking
the vitamin D. The reason I'm saying this is because
my mum said to me the other day. She was like,
I don't know what she was reading, probably some conspiracy
website or something again, and she's said in so much

(04:32):
trouble anyway, So she said to me, she said, do
you know what Heather, she said, I read the other
day that if you grew up in a place where
you had lots of sunshine and now you don't have
as much sunshine, you should take victimin D because it's
very odd for you. And we grew I grew up
in a place actually instinctly where she grew up as well,
where I think we maybe got like three or four
rainy days a year, like it was a semid is

(04:54):
it right? So there's a hell of a lot of sunshine.
So anyway, I decided, well, you know, it's very hard
to replace that kind of level of sunshine or started
taking the vitamin D. Game changer, absolute game changer, hasn't
it been?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Laura?

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Last two weeks, I've just been so excited, haven't I
haven't I? Yeah, that's what I did. Yeah, I just
took the Vitamin D. They just go down to your pharmacy,
get some Vitamin DSK, completely natural all that. You go,
Happy days. You'll thank me later if it Google needs it,
inn't the It's living in Wellington sixteen past four. For
more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news
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(05:28):
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