We recently discovered Our Mental Story, a website dedicated to sharing the stories of people with lived experience of mental-health difficulties. We think it’s well worth a look. You won’t find stories categorised by diagnostic labels here though. Expect a list of titles like “I was crafty with my trouble making”, “managing to save my ten sick days a year is an annual challenge”, “Have you ever experienced that deep tight feeling of not being able to breathe” and “everyone wants to fix me with a quick solution.” The site was created by Charlotte-Rose Ruddell and Liv Young began in 2016.
Category Archives: Mental Health
Call for Abstracts: 13th International Mental Health and Addiction Conference
The 13th Biennial Asia Pacific (AsPac) International Mental Health and Addiction Conference will be held in Auckland, New Zealand on 31 October to 1 November 2018. The theme is Healthy Futures – Inspiration, Inclusion and Integration and the conference committee is now looking for abstracts for presentations, including those that share lived experience perspectives.
Find out more here: www.cmnzl.co.nz/healthy-futures/welcome/
Psychology Week 9-15 November 2015
Psychology Week takes place across NZ and Australia from the 9th to the 15th of November. This initiative aims to increase public awareness of how psychology can help people, families/whanau and communities find ways to increase their psychological wellbeing. The theme of the NZ Psychology Week is “living life well”. Find a free talk in a town near you at www.psychology.org.nz/pd-events/psychology-week/
reTHiNK Wellbeing Workshop in Auckland and Wellington
reTHinK Wellbeing is an innovative workshop to help you understand mental health, cope better with stress and distress, support others and flourish!
Last Auckland Date – 18th November
Coming to Wellington one day only – 3rd of December 10am- 3pm
The reTHiNK workshop concentrates on building wellbeing skills for yourself, and your workplaces as well as simple tips for supporting others going through stress and distress. Engaging and entertaining activities help workshop participants, experience, understand and empathise with symptoms of mental health challenges that you may not have had personally. It is relevant for any audience.
This year reTHiNK workshops have been facilitated for Peers as well as Police, Manufacturing, Retail, Corporate, Health, Builders, Tertiary, Professional Sport and Actors Equity to name a few, and the good folks at Mind and Body Consultants have received hundreds of handwritten testimonials on the value of these innovative workshops.
Book Now! Registrations Close on November 10th.
Auckland – http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2015/rethink-madness/auckland/epsom
Wellington – http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2015/rethink-well-being/lower-hutt
Cacophony: Hearing Voices Exhibition 1-11 October 2015
Art and Sound Collide for Mental Health Awareness
Experience a unique interactive installation, featuring local artists, real stories and experiential soundscapes. Immerse yourself in the sometimes painful but always hopeful journey to recovery.
When: Opens Thursday October 1st 6 PM and runs to Sunday October 11th, 10 am-4:00 PM
Where: The Upstairs Art Gallery, Lopdell House 418 Titirangi Rd, Titirangi, Auckland
Mental Health Awareness Week Calendar 5-11 October 2015
How will you be celebrating Mental Health Awareness Week?
Activities run from 5–11 October, the week of World Mental Health Awareness Day on October 10th.
The theme this year is Give and the Mental Health Foundation’s calendar of events is filled with wonderful ways to get involved across the country.
The Mindfulness Summit: free and online from 1-31 October 2015
The Mindfulness Summit is an ONLINE and FREE event running the entire month of October 2015. Melli O’Brien of MrsMindfulness.com has gathered over 30 of the world’s leading experts on meditation and mindfulness for a series of online interviews, practice sessions and presentations taking place for free from October 1 – 31, 2015. Register online and receive an email everyday with a link to watch. Each day, a new free interview or keynote presentation will be available on that day only. Keynote speakers include Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ruby Wax, Russ Harris and more.
Find out more and register to take part at themindfulnesssummit.com/
DAY 1 Professor Mark Williams: An Introduction To Mindfulness
DAY 2 Joseph Goldstein: Practical Guidance On Mindful Living & Overcoming Common Obstacles
DAY 3 Dan Harris: From Sceptic to Meditator. Dan Shares How He ‘Tamed The Voice In His Head’ & How You Can Too
DAY 4 Jono Fisher: Mindful Masculinity, Conscious Capitalism and Kindness
DAY 5 Dr. Susan Albers: How to Practice Mindful Eating
DAY 6 Tami Simon: How Does Mindfulness Relate To Spiritual Awakening? An Interview & Meditation
DAY 7 Dr. Rick Hanson: The Neuroscience Of Mindfulness
DAY 8 Elisha Goldstein: How To Integrate Mindfulness Into Everyday Life
DAY 9 Ruby Wax: How Mindfulness Can Transform Depression, Overcome Performance Anxiety & Create A ‘Sane New World’
DAY 10 Tara Brach: How To End ‘The Trance of Unworthiness’ & Move Through Fear
DAY 11 Shamash Alidina: Practical Tips on Becoming More Mindful (Submit Questions for Day 17 Today)
DAY 12 Sam Harris: Waking Up. A Powerful Talk About Spirituality Without Religion
DAY 13 Jack Kornfield: Integrating ‘Spiritual’ Life With Everyday Life
DAY 14 Vidyamala Burch: Mindfulness For Chronic Pain & Suffering
DAY 15 Professor Paul Gilbert: How To Practice Mindful Compassion
DAY 16 Dr. Dan Siegel & Caroline Welch: The Effects of Technology + Mindfulness Business & Leadership
DAY 17 Question and Answer Day 1
DAY 18 & nbsp;Lori Deschene: Mindfulness With Technology & The Power of Authenticity
DAY 19 Dr. Russ Harris: How To Observe Your Thoughts & Feelings Without Getting Caught Up
DAY 20 Arianna Huffington: How To Thrive In This Information Age
DAY 21 Timothea Goddard: The Insights & Realisations That Develop Through Mindfulness
DAY 22 Mirabai Bush: Mindfulness In Business (Submit Questions for Day 30 Today)
DAY 23 Dr. Kristen Race: Mindful Parenting
DAY 24 Dan Goleman: Why Focus Is The Hidden Driver Of Excellence
DAY 25 Katherine Weare – Teaching Mindfulness To Children
DAY 26 Michael Chaskalson: Mindfulness For Peak Performance
DAY 27 Richard Burnett: Mindfulness In Schools
DAY 28 Mindfulness Apps, Tools & Tech Day
DAY 29 Dr. Judson Brewer: Mindfulness For Addiction
DAY 30 Question & Answer Day 2
DAY 31 Jon Kabat-Zinn: LIVESTREAM October 31st 5:00 PM EDT/ 2:00 PM PDT/ 8:00 AM 1st November AEDT
Engage Update: New Resource to Help Teachers Talk About Coping with their Classes
Engage Aotearoa is pleased to announce the launch of a new resource that has been long in the making. The Coping Posters Teaching Resource guides teachers to use The Coping Kete to engage students with the static image component of the Year 9 English curriculum, get them talking about how to cope with the rough parts of life and share coping information among the wider school community.
Winner: Taipa Area School Poster Competition 2014
This resource was created in collaboration with Ilana Hill. The Engage Aotearoa team met Ilana Hill in mid-2014 at a LifeHack Weekend in the Far North. She was then a Year 9 teacher at Taipa Area School who wanted to get her students talking about safe ways of coping with distress and get them excited about the Year 9 English curriculum. Over the following months we collaborated to create a set of guidelines that would allow her to safely explore coping with her students. Students would create posters to promote positive coping and The Coping Kete to their community, while they learned about static images. The top posters would be shared on the Engage Aotearoa website and the school’s newsletter where they could reach parents and other family members as well as the wider school body. Students were excited to create a poster that promoted an idea that might have an impact in the real world. The winning posters were published in November 2014 and posted on social media.
The Coping Poster Teaching Resource includes Ilana Hill’s original teaching inquiry, guidelines for teachers that set out how to introduce the topic in the same way, poster guidelines for students, coping poster planning worksheets, a practice analysis worksheet and information sheets that define different static image elements set out in the worksheet. These align with the elements covered in the Year 9 curriculum.
Download The Coping Poster Teaching Resource here
Visit Engage Aotearoa’s Coping Resources page to find The Coping Kete and the Teaching Resource together in one place.
