Engage Aotearoa

Impact of Welfare Reforms on People with Mental-Health Problems and Disabilities

July 21, 2013 6:57 pm ⋅

Carmel Sepuloni, CEO of Vaka Tautua writes about the welfare reforms that came into effect on the 15th of July…

Welfare reforms and the impact on those living with mental health issues and/or disability

“The truth is that some view the recently announced welfare reforms as the ‘kick in the butt’ that the unemployed need to get them actively looking for work. If only it were that simple. If only jobs were plentiful and barriers to employment didn’t exist.

I decided to look specifically at the changes in relation to those living with disability and / or with mental health issues – at the end of the day we at Vaka Tautua need to know how our Pacific clients are impacted by these changes.

When looking over the submissions to this bill there was no mistaking that there is strong support and appreciation for appropriate employment. No one denied the positive impact that appropriate employment can have on people’s physical, mental, emotional, social and financial wellbeing. There was general acceptance of the changes to the benefit titles – in fact some felt that this was a positive move, citing a negative stigma attached to previous titles. However there were some very real and serious concerns raised about the legislation.“

Keep Reading on the Vaka Tautua website…

Posted in: Employment / Work, News, Pasifika Communities, Politics and Policy ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

Updates from the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership

July 11, 2013 11:14 pm ⋅

Following is a series of articles from the May IIMHL Update

Greater Choice of Clinician in England

From April this year people referred by their GP to secondary mental health providers in England have the right to choose the professional-led team (which may or may not be led by a psychiatrist) which treats them. From April next year this choice at the point of referral will be extended further, to include choice of provider as well as choice of team within that provider.

The policy was set out in a recent consultation response. The accompanying ‘choice framework’ sets out patient entitlements:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-consultation-on-proposals-for-greater-patient-involvement-and-more-choice

The policy lead for this work within the Department of Health mental health policy team is Michael West (michael.west@dh.gsi.gov.uk). He would be happy to discuss this work further with anyone who is interested.

Well-being in the UK

Measuring National Well-being: Life in the UK 2012 provides a unique overview of well-being in the UK today. The report is the first snapshot of life in the UK to be delivered by the Measuring National Well-being programme and will be updated and published annually. Well-being is discussed in terms of the economy, people and the environment. Information such as the unemployment rate or number of crimes against the person are presented alongside data on people’s thoughts and feelings, for example, satisfaction with our jobs or leisure time and fear of crime. Together, a richer picture on ‘how society is doing’ is provided.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_287415.pdf

Probation Services and Mental Health
(2012, December). London: Centre for Mental Health
Report
Research suggests that 39% of offenders supervised by probation services have a current mental health condition. Yet mental ill health in the probation caseload is, for the most part, unrecognised and untreated. This briefing paper summarises the current and potential future links between health and probation services relevant to the needs of offenders with mental health conditions. It is based on data collected by the University of Lincoln showing the prevalence of a range of mental health conditions among one probation service caseload and the proportion of those people receiving treatment and support (Brooker et al., 2012).

E-mental Health: What’s all the fuss about?
(2013, January). London: NHS Confederation. Discussion paper number 12
Report
This paper looks at how the mental health sector might make the most of opportunities offered by e-mental. It gives examples of how service users, mental health providers and other organisations are already embracing e-mental health to bring about change.

Developing Family Leadership
A Discussion Paper on Personalised Transition from The Centre for Welfare Reform

Dr Pippa Murray, ibk initiatives, June 2011

Increasingly public services are waking up to the need to let families lead – not abandoning them, not burdening them – but building the right kind of supportive relationships that let families control their own destiny with respectful support. This discussion paper by Pippa Murray is a product of our Personalised Transition programme and reflects practical learning across Yorkshire and Humber.

To download a copy of this report, use the following link:

http://bit.ly/developing-family-leadership

General enquiries about this update or for other IIMHL information please contact Erin Geaney at erin@iimhl.com

Read the June IIMHL Newsletter online here.

Posted in: News, Online Resources, Research, Service-User Movement ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

Real Life Story on TV One this Sunday 14 July at 8:30 am

July 11, 2013 10:59 pm ⋅

Chris McMurray is a poet and a rapper. Words are his thing.

At nine he lost his father to a fatal heart attack… and he went down a disruptive path of drug use, after which he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder.

Now at the age of twenty-two Chris uses his art to express what it’s like living with mental health problems and is looking to the future.

Share his story in the documentary this Sunday the 14th of July at 8:30 am on TV One.

Check out the promo clip here on Youtube.

Posted in: Documentary, Men, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Announcements from Changing Minds: Diverse City, New Manager and Mental Blocks.

July 5, 2013 12:08 pm ⋅

Changing Minds launched the first issue of Diverse City last week, a brand new quarterly print-magazine that aims to start conversations that promote diversity and acceptance.

Find out more about Diverse City and how to get a copy on the Changing Minds website.

MENATL-BLOCKS-BRAIN-ONLY-1024x1024

Tina Helm has left Changing Minds for the shores of Australia and new manager Ainslie Gee is now settling in.

Changing Minds has opened submissions for a new project called Mental Blocks, which, like the old reTHiNK Grant, offers funds for creative community projects that change the way people think about mental-health problems.

You can apply for up to $2 000 to bring your project to fruition and they say they will consider anything. 

Applications are due: Friday 30 August 2013, before 5pm.

Posted in: Community Participation, News, Service-User Movement, Social Change ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Engage Community Resources Directory Updated 3 July 2013

July 3, 2013 7:41 pm ⋅

The Engage Community Resources Directory has had another round of updates added, including…

  • A Psychiatrists Section that lists most of the community mental-health services in the country
  • More Crisis Teams
  • Rotorua, Tokoroa, Hamilton therapists added
  • Plus other services that have been sent in from community members. Keep them coming, guys!

The information manager at Engage Aotearoa still has stacks of services waiting to be added, so keep an eye out for next month’s update. As usual, there is so much more waiting to be shared.

Visit The Community Treasure Chest to check out your own copy of The Community Resources Directory.

 

Posted in: Engage Updates, Families/Whanau, Men, Older People and Aging, Online Resources, Parents and Parenting, People with Disabilities, Support, Women, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , ,

Inspiring Story of Independence and Connection

July 3, 2013 5:49 pm ⋅

Martine Abel at the Auckland Council sent a copy of this Herald Article around in a group email last week. Engage Aotearoa service director says “this story makes me wish I had an ‘Awesome’ tag for our blog posts!”

“Disabled find their place

By Boris Jancic | 5:30 AM Friday Jun 28, 2013

Journey to independent living was difficult, but the results are astonishing, says mother

Like most young people, Travers Brown wants his independence.

But Mr Brown, 33, has Down syndrome, which means he is unable to do everyday things like read, write or drive.

Despite that, he now flats happily with three other adults with disabilities in Howick, and the journey he took to get there is behind a new resource aimed at helping families in similar situations.

His family set out on an ambitious project to engage a variety of charities, government bodies and private companies to create a shared, independent living space for their children.”

Read the rest of the article on the NZ Herald website here.

Posted in: Disability Issues, Families/Whanau, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Parents and Parenting, People with Disabilities, Recovery Stories, Service-User Movement, Social Change ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,

A 1970s Teacher Gives Her Class a Lesson They Won’t Forget

July 3, 2013 5:03 pm ⋅

If you have an interest in issues like self-worth, stigma, discrimination and equality, you might like this video of one teacher’s experiment with her 3rd Grade classroom for National Brotherhood Week in the 1970s (might be earlier – it’s hard to tell). This is one of those old experiments that would never get through a modern-day ethics committee, but that nonetheless teach us a lot about what it is to be a human being in the world.

Upworthy writes:

“1:30: This teacher begins a study that will be talked about for 40 years.
3:00: She re-creates segregation and racism in her classroom.
7:45: Mrs. Elliott flips the entire class on their heads.
10:00 Jane Elliot makes the most profound discovery about us all
11:43: The students learn something that the world is still struggling to. 
There are too many great moments to point out. Just watch.”
Posted in: Cultural Considerations, Engage Updates, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Online Resources, Politics and Policy, Research, Social Change ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Revisiting a Personal Account of Surviving Suicide on Psychiatry Online

July 3, 2013 3:18 pm ⋅

In 2011, Dr Sarah Gordon, a New Zealand service-user academic at the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington wrote a personal account of surviving her own suicide attempts. The Engage Aotearoa team came across it again on Facebook this week. In the article, Gordon writes of her experiences partially in the third person and notes

The psychiatrist refused to entertain any notion of immediate discharge, however, reasoning that the patient seemed to have no relationship with anyone or anything. You see, the psychiatrist argued, relating to people is absolutely fundamental to living well. So that is what the woman did with the remainder of her time with the unit, which was a further five months: she worked on relearning and practicing relationships with herself, her family, her friends, and her community. And this is what she is doing now: actively engaging in her roles as a mother and wife, working, dancing, writing, celebrating holidays, and shopping (something she particularly enjoys).

Read the rest of the article online here.

Posted in: Online Resources, Recovery Stories, Research ⋅ Tagged: , ,

New Research Burst: Lots of Great New Articles Out Online

June 27, 2013 12:55 pm ⋅

New Research from Psychosis Online

Psychosis has just published a bunch of new research articles online, one of which has the Engage team buzzing because it backs up our transdiagnostic approach by providing another piece of proof that people with psychosis have some of the same underlying traits that people with anxiety and depression have. Maybe when we see beyond what the experiences look like from the outside, different mental-health problems are not so different underneath it all.

Developmental pathway to paranoia is mediated by negative self-concept and experiential avoidance
Alisa Udachina & Richard P. Bentall
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.810301
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

Madness contested: power and practice
Sami Timimi
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.806572
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

Family intervention for psychosis: impact of training on clinicians’ attitudes, knowledge and behaviour
Jacqueline Sin, Steven Livingstone, Maria Griffiths & Catherine Gamble
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.806569
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

Psychosis and poverty coping with poverty and severe mental illness in everyday life
Alain Topor, Gunnel Andersson, Anne Denhov, Miss Sara Holmqvist, Maria Mattsson, Claes-Göran Stefansson & Per Bülow
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.790070
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

Positive effects of a novel cognitive remediation computer game (X-Cog) in first episode psychosis: a pilot study
Majid M. Saleem, Michael K. Harte, Kay M. Marshall, Andy Scally, Anita Brewin & Jo C. Neill
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.791876
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

Book Review: Hearing voices – the histories, causes and meanings of auditory verbal hallucinations, by Dr. Simon McCarthy-Jones
Adèle de Jager
DOI: 10.1080/17522439.2013.806571
Psychosis: Psychological, Social and Integrative Approaches

New Research from BMC Psychiatry Online

Research article    
Understanding psychiatric institutionalization: a conceptual review
Chow W, Priebe S
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:169 (18 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

Research article    
Frequency and relevance of psychoeducation in psychiatric diagnoses: Results of two surveys five years apart in German-speaking European countries
Rummel-Kluge C, Kluge M, Kissling W
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:170 (18 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

Research article    
Trauma-focused treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder combined with CBT for severe substance use disorder: a randomized controlled trial
van Dam D, Ehring T, Vedel E, Emmelkamp PM
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:172 (19 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

Research article    
Promoting recovery-oriented practice in mental health services: a quasi-experimental mixed-methods study
Gilburt H, Slade M, Bird V, Oduola S, Craig TK
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:167 (13 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

Research article    
Prevalence and sociodemographic associations of common mental disorders in a nationally representative sample of the general population of Greece
Skapinakis P, Bellos S, Koupidis S, Grammatikopoulos I, Theodorakis PN, Mavreas V
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:163 (4 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

Research article    
Association between psychiatric disorders and iron deficiency anemia among children and adolescents: a nationwide population-based study
Chen M, Su T, Chen Y, Hsu J, Huang K, Chang W, Chen T, Bai Y
BMC Psychiatry 2013, 13:161 (4 June 2013)
[Provisional PDF]

 

Posted in: Engage Updates, Online Resources, Research ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Mike King Korero Heads to Rotorua 2-3 July 2013

June 27, 2013 12:05 pm ⋅

Mike King of The Nutters Club and Key to Life Charitable Trust is joined by Tai Tupou next week as they stop off in Rotorua on their way to Tokoroa as part of Key to Life and Engage Aotearoa’s Korero project.

In the Community Korero, comedian Mike King gets straight up about his battle with depression, addiction and his ongoing journey back to recovery, including the mistakes he made along the way. Hear about the things he learnt from the hard times and how all those mistakes were blessings in disguise. This is a not-to-be-missed chance for communities to come together and explore how to support our youth and each other to survive and thrive.

  • Tues 2 July 2013 |Venue: Sunset Primary School, Rotorua | Time: 6 – 8 pm

In Cool to Korero, school students get to spend some quality time with Mike and Tai as they talk about how they survived growing up. Mike’s is the story of a kid who wanted to fit in. It is about wanting to be part of the cool group but being 4’11 with buck teeth and big ears and needing a miracle to make it happen. Then one day he discovered he had a gift to make people laugh and he went from being bullied, to being liked and then many years later becoming a bully himself. Mike shares tips on how to deal with bullies and also why bullies do what they do. The main point is that struggles and hardship are part of life but if we make it cool to korero, seek support and hold on to an attitude of hope, we can get through anything and go on to thrive.

  • 2 July 2013
    • Session 1 Venue: Rotorua Girls High, 11:30 am
    • Session 2 Venue: Sunset Heights Primary School, Rotorua
    • Session 3 Venue: Western Heights School, Rotorua
  • 3 July 2013 
    • Session 1 Venue: Rotorua Boys High School
    • Session 2 Venue: Rotorua Intermediate, 1:00 pm

Posters for Upcoming and Past Korero Events

[slideshow_deploy id=’4793′]

 

Posted in: Community Participation, Entertainment and Creativity, Families/Whanau, Parents and Parenting, Service-User Movement, Social Change, Suicide Prevention/Support, Young People and Youth Issues ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,