Archive for the ‘Perspective’ Category

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NGOs must work together to ensure continued service provision

April 5, 2011

Non government organisations need to work together in order to continue providing vital services in the face of significant funding challenges, says Platform chief executive Marion Blake.

Ms Blake, whose organisation is a national network of mental health and addiction NGOs, said that with years of austerity measures ahead, it is clear that New Zealand will not be able to invest in health in the way it has before.

“Clearly everybody in the health sector is going to have to learn to do more with less,” said Ms Blake. “We need to get more creative about how we use what we have and how we deliver services – and one of the keys to this will be collaboration. “Mental ill health is not going to go away. New Zealand has a high prevalence of anxiety, mood and substance disorders and it is estimated that 47 per cent of New Zealanders will experience a mental illness an addiction some time in their lives. “It will become essential for elements of our mental health and addiction services to collaborate, work differently with each other and even merge just as we are already starting to see happening in all aspects of organisational life in New Zealand.”

Ms Blake said that GPs should also be able to refer people directly to a community organisation contracted by a District Health Board to provide mental health and addiction services.

“Currently many NGOs can only provide help to people who have come via the hospitals,” she said. “We need to remove these barriers so that, where appropriate, GPs can refer people with a mental health or addiction issue directly to a community organisation for early and often brief intervention that could prevent them needing to be admitted to hospital.”

Ms Blake said that by working together all community services can help ensure early interventions and address issues that aggravate mental distress such as poor physical health, housing, poverty and loneliness.

“All community service providers are seeing people with mental distress. We need all organisations across the housing, social, community and health sectors to put a mental health lens on all social problems. “As a country we can continue reforming the health system steadily – but we need to work on transforming it quickly. We must get help to people faster.”

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No Going Back

February 22, 2011

Community care, like institutionalisation is not a place; it’s a measure of society’s relationship to difference and justice. Since the middle ages people who were physically disabled or mentally ill have been sent away.

The hospitals, institutions, asylums – call them what you like – were the physical manifestation of difference, between citizens in our communities. Always found out of town, although over time many towns grew to meet them, but enough distance to ensure that most people in the local community were not connected and indifferent to those who lived there.

New Zealand has the international reputation of being one of the first countries in the world to close our long standing psychiatric hospitals. Our mental health and addiction services now include a mix of services provided by staff employed by the District Health Boards, community organisations, General Practice and Primary care organisations and some private organisations and individuals are all part of the mix. We need the diversity of skills, experience and knowledge to work in this area because there are often many things happening to a person and their family all at the same time. The community organisations employ staff who help people stay well by connecting them to their community family and friends, this means finding places to live, things to do and employment. This is New Zealand’s mental health and addiction system, it has evolved over the last 15-20 years, it continues to develop, it is envied by many countries over the world and its success depends on each part doing what its bit well. (more…)

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Comparing Support Work Practice with the Principles of Psychosocial Rehabilitation

January 18, 2011

Contributor: Barnaby D. M. Pace MNZPsS, Ass.MNZCMHN BSocSc(Hons), MSocSc(Hons), PGDipCBT, PGDipEd(AdEd)

Abstract

As mental health support work continues to grow and develop as a healthcare discipline, practitioners in the field are continuously seeking contemporary research and best practice models to enhance service delivery. Through such investigations the Core Principles of Psychiatric Rehabilitation as set by the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services have been identified as of particular interest to support work practice. Through the aid of a literature review of contemporary New Zealand based research a comparison study was conducted between the core principles of psychosocial rehabilitation and identified support work practice. The analytical discussions had by the support worker group provided additional support for the consideration of psychosocial rehabilitation practice as a base of community support work in mental health services.

Keywords: Principles of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, Support Work Practice  

Introduction

As mental health support work continues to grow and develop as a healthcare discipline, practitioners in the field are continuously seeking contemporary research and best practice models to enhance service delivery (Pace, 2010a). Through such investigations the Core Principles of Psychiatric Rehabilitation (Figure 1.) as set by the International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services have been identified as of particular interest to support work practice. In spite of the fact that community support work was originally modeled around psychosocial rehabilitation (Carling, 1995; Caird, 2001), traditionally mental health support work in New Zealand has been confined to the use of the recovery principles (Figure 2.) (O’Hagan, 2001), which indeed have formed the cornerstone of support work practice (Cowan, 2008). However, as mental health support work in New Zealand moves towards professionalization, it is timely to revisit the psychosocial rehabilitation roots from which the discipline has grown. 

The presenting research examines a number of well regarded principles of psychosocial rehabilitation from International Association’s and recognized authors and compares them with the identified key role and function of mental health support workers. Following on from this literature comparison study, the core principles (Figure 1.) were presented to a group of currently practicing mental health support workers for comparison with how they perceive their role and function.

(more…)

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On Reflection

August 3, 2010

An inside view of an in-patient mental health service. Our thanks to Michael W Brown for this contribution.

“Two hours”

By, Micheal W. Brown. BCApSc. MIndS (Distinction) (Otago) Doctoral Candidate (Waikato)

At the request of a mental health practitioner, I was asked to write about my experiences of the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre Hamilton.  This is my retelling of a story; an experience that transcended and informed my reality of what it is that is “real” for me. 

This story was written five days after my release from the Mental Health Ward at the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre, Waikato Hospital.  

My Hubris:

In my attempt to end my life, to “right the wrongs” that I felt I had been implanted in the consciousness of those people who loved me the most; my wife; my children; my whānau and friends, I irreparably hurt these people. By engaging in dysfunctional, yet enlightening experiences of self discovery, I become an “actor” in my own play; a play that embodied a theme of destruction; a play culminating in my hubris, my tragedy. Thus, I take full and absolute ownership of the experiences that led to my admission into the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre.  (more…)

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