Engage Aotearoa

Author Archives: Admin

Posts by 'admin' on the Engage Mental-Health News and Events Blog are shared on behalf of third parties to help make information about mental-health news and events easier to find and do not necessarily reflect the views of Engage Aotearoa or Community Mental-Health Resources Trust. News and events posted with the tag 'Engage Updates' are written by and/or about Engage Aotearoa.

Consultation on Changes to Benefits 25 October 2012

Paula Bennett has set out her latest proposals for changes to welfare benefits for consultation.  These will mean changes to sickness and invalids benefits, the way disability allowance is paid, and the DPB CSI.

Auckland Disability Law invites you, your whanau and friends to a Community Hui to discuss the proposed changes and to learn how to make a submission.

The hui will look at these changes from a Rights based framework and will incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Government’s obligation under this convention.

Come and share your views and ideas.

Please let ADL know if you are coming and if you need and NZSL interpreter. Numbers limited

Full information about the select committee process can be found here: http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Legislation/Bills/5/2/a/00DBHOH_BILL11634_1-Social-Security-Benefit-Categories-and-Work-Focus.htm

Submissions are due Thursday 1 November.

Thursday 25 October 2012,

9.30am – 12pm (tea and coffee from 9-00am)

Mangere Community Law Centre, off Waddon Place, Mangere

No. 116: A Moment for Self-Care

This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing… Coping Kete… I will practice using small moments of self-care to create positive experiences in my day. Self-care is the act of caring for myself by meeting my basic needs for food and water, movement, fresh air, sunlight, stillness, and physical care. I will spend some time every morning and evening focused on a self-care activity from one of these categories. I will start out by making a list of activities I like for each kind of self-care first and then use my diary to plan which activities I will do each morning and night. I might even add to these categories if I want to, I could add ‘ Connection’ or ‘ Noise’ or any other kind of activity that I feel fits with my idea of what my ‘ basic needs’ are.
For example:

Food and water

Sit down and eat breakfast
Take time to prepare lunch
Make something really healthy for dinner
Eat a favourite food
Stop to drink a glass of water

Movement

Dance to music in my room
Go to a ‘No Lights No Lycra’ event
Do some yoga stretches
Take mini-breaks to stroll round the room

Fresh air

Pause and do some belly-breathing
Stand outside and breathe deep for a moment
Pop my head out an open window

Sunlight

Read a book in the sun
Do some gardening
Eat lunch outside

Stillness

Go to bed early to read a book
Light some candles and listen to chill-out music
Paint something on that blank canvas I have sitting around

Physical care

Make one of the spaces in my house nice to be in
Cleanse and moisturise my face
Wash and brush my hair
Wear something that feels good to be in

As I do each activity I will focus all my attention on the task at hand, being aware as I go that I am making a simple gesture of caring to myself. As I move through the week, I will be mindful of how I am affected by my moments of self-care so I can tell which activities work to shift my mood and whether I want to adjust them at all. Once I am comfortable purposefully doing self-care activities on a regular basis and have found some that boost my mood, I will add them to my Personal Coping Kete and use ‘ A Moment of Self-Care’ as a way of nurturing and valuing myself during times of stress and distress.

No. 115: Noticing My Small Contributions to Others

This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing… Coping Kete… I will actively recall times I have been kind, giving or friendly towards other people and practice noticing the good bits about myself. Each morning or the night before I will jot down a few times I can remember myself being good to others, they could be recent, historical or a mix of both. Then I will practice reminding myself of these small contributions to others throughout the day. As I move through the day during the week, I will take moments to pause and mentally run through my list of past examples as a reminder of my good intentions and value to those around me. This week, I will practice noticing the positive effects I have on others and in so doing, I will practice building my sense of self-worth and valuing even my smallest contributions. If I notice my mind wandering onto times when I have not had a positive effect on others, I will notice those thoughts and compassionately bring my mind back to the exercise of recalling interactions in which I have been kind, caring, friendly, supportive or helpful to another person. I am more than my mistakes. Once I am familiar with the task of remembering and noticing my past and current positive contributions on a daily basis, I will add this to my Personal Coping Kete as a self-soothing strategy for times of distress when I notice I am devaluing myself and my place in my community.

Access 80 Free Articles on Depression during October 2012

Free Articles from Routledge Mental Health

Celebrate World Mental Health Day for the entire month with over 80 FREE articles on Depression from Routledge Mental Health available until October 26, 2012 at: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/access/free-articles-world-mental-health-day-2012.pdf

Online Suicide Prevention Training Available!

QPR Online TrainingFoundations in Suicide Prevention

Ask a Question –   Save a Life

Fee $50 including GST

Worried about someone? 

Learn what to look for, when to be concerned and what to say to save a life!

Click here to Purchase QPR Online Suicide Prevention Training

The training programme includes:

  • Risk factors for suicide
  • How to get help for someone in crisis
  • The warning signs of a suicide crisis
  • The common causes of suicidal behaviour
  • Relationship of mental illness to suicide
  • When and how to Question suicidal people
  • How to Persuade people to accept help
  • How to Refer people to resources

QPR New Zealand on-line Suicide Prevention Training

Learn to save a life in as little as two hours, anywhere, anytime.QPR New Zealand offers a comprehensive online training programme, using the latest in educational web technology.  This training will arm you with the skills you need to help prevent suicide today.

QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer – 3 simple steps that anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide. Just as people are trained in CPR to help save thousands of lives each year, people trained in QPR learn how to recognize the warning signs of suicide and how to question, persuade, and refer someone for help.

Community Consultation on The Ministry’s Mental Health and Addiction Service Development Plan

The Ministry of Health is releasing for stakeholder consultation Rising to the Challenge: The Mental Health and Addiction Service Development Plan 2012 – 2017.  The purpose of the Plan is to provide direction for mental health and addiction service delivery across the health sector over the next five years, and to clearly articulate Government expectations about what changes are needed to build on and enhance gains made in the delivery of mental health and addictions in recent years. The Plan incorporates key themes from Blueprint II and advances the Government’s focus on better performing public services. The plan has also been informed by input from preliminary sector consultations.

The consultation period will run from 8 October 2012 to 2 November 2012.  Feedback closes on Friday 2 November 2012 at 5.00 pm. Please note that any feedback forms received after this time will not be included in the analysis of feedback.

How to respond

You can respond using the consultation response questionnaire attached to the consultation document. Email your local coordinator to request a consultation document and feedback form.

Attend a regional consultation workshop in your region during October.

You may already be aware of these meetings.  If not, please email the contact person identified for further details if you wish to attend.

Your views and feedback are welcome and can be provided:

a) by email to:  SDP@moh.govt.nz

b)   in writing to:  April-Mae Marshall, Mental Health Service Improvement Group,  Ministry of Health,  PO Box 5013,  Wellington.

All feedback forms will be acknowledged by the Ministry of Health and a summary of feedback will be sent to all those who request a copy. We look forward to your feedback which will assist us to finalise this document.

New Help Line for Chinese People

Vagus Line 0800 56 76 666

As from 1 October 2012, Vagus line 0800 56 76 666 from Chinese Mental Health Consultation Services Trust will be in service:

This new service is to promote family harmony among Chinese, enhance parenting skills, decrease conflict among family members (couple, parent-child, in-laws) and stop family violence.

Vagus Line provides FREE/ CONFIDENTAIL/ PROFESSIONAL consultation such as providing parenting strategies, communication skills.

If necessary, clients can be referred to Vagus counselling services or related resources.

Service hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 12 noon to 2pm

Learn Interactive Drawing Therapy: Course Starts 1 November 2012

The Interactive Drawing Therapy Foundation Course scheduled in Auckland is less than one month away.

1-2 & 5-6 November 2012

The offer to attend this course is the Early Bird rate at $750.00 (incl GST) – this is the final Foundation Course in Auckland for 2012.

The enrolment deadline is Monday 22nd October – contact the IDT Office for an enrolment form.

IDT – A way of working that is immediate, effective and proven!

Interactive Drawing Therapy Ltd
PO Box 47-419 Ponsonby,  Auckland 1144, New Zealand
Phone: (0064) 9 376 4789 | Fax (0064) 9 376 4759 | Email: idt@pl.net  

Website:  www.InteractiveDrawingTherapy.com

Engage Group Full for 2012

Engage Group is a free education and support programme for people of any age who struggle with the limiting effects of anxiety in any form.

The next programme gets underway at Youthline in Ponsonby, Auckland on Wednesday October 3rd with a full group who will spend the next ten weeks together exploring ways to overcome anxiety and supporting each other through.

Enrolments are now closed for 2012. But to make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunity to enrol next year, contact Youthline’s special services centre on (09) 361 4168 or services@youthline.co.nz to add yourself to the waitlist.

More information can be found on the Engage Aotearoa website at the following link:

www.engagenz.co.nz/?page_id=85 

No. 114: List Poems

This week, to attain, maintain or regain my sense of wellbeing… Coping Kete…I will spend 10 – 15 minutes every day writing a list poem about the things I have seen, done and felt that day. Each evening, I will sit down with a notebook and write a list of five things I saw that day, five things I did that day and five things I felt or thought. I will try to make each item on each list different. Then I will rearrange or join the items on my lists into a poem. I might add words and images or change things in my lists as well. In this way I will practice regularly reflecting on my daily experience and finding a creative way to express it. While I am thinking of the words to use and working on rearranging the lines, I might get a bit of time out from worrying about things. If I get distracted by concerns of the day I will work them into the list and return my focus to the creative task at hand. By working to include a number of different experiences in the list I will practice having an expansive awareness of my day without letting one experience override everything I have been aware of. If I felt like it, I could share my poems with someone else as a way to connect with support and encouragement, but they are really something that I will do just for myself. Once I am comfortable making list poems about a typical day, I will add it to my Personal Coping Kete as a strategy for distracting myself from the moment and creatively expressing myself in times of stress and distress.Example list poem.

28/09/2012

The aluminium sky

the neighbour’ s stray cat

my own reflection in the window

outside the path littered with petals

the wind-blown tree.

 

I have typed so many messages

dressed myself to match

bought new socks and worn them

cooked hot food and eaten it

peeled an orange and given you half.

My small victories.

 

I was caring about everything

sadness for all the news

I thought I saw you flinch when I said that

worrying over the day’ s mathematics

joy in the act of nurturing something.

– M. Barr