Many Kiwis were affected by alcohol and drug withdrawal symptoms during the Covid19 lockdown and the NZ Drug Foundation compiled some vital strategies and tips for people struggling with their alcohol or drug use. Visit www.drugfoundation.org.nz/covid-19/
More than 200 people from across the mental health and addiction sector and the wider health and social sectors have contributed to a report, co-published by Te Pou and Platform Trust, that aims to prepare NGO mental health and AOD services for “the next round of reform”.
“On Track: Knowing where we are going outlines the wide range of issues that need to be considered and addressed to improve health outcomes for people using services, their whānau and local communities, and to ensure the future capability of the mental health and addiction workforce”.
The Ministry of Health will soon release the national COPMIA guideline, currently in draft.
This guideline will outline the responsibilities all mental health and addiction services have to the children of parents with mental illness and or addiction (COPMIA) and their families and whānau. For some, this is going to mean a big shift in the way that services operate. The guideline envisions a mental health and addiction sector that is inclusive of family and whānau, focusses on strengths, and promotes and protects the wellbeing and rights of children. It promotes early intervention in the lives of children to support resilience, offering evidenced based and culturally appropriate ways of working, and across sector partnerships to meet the needs of children and their families and whānau.
For more information click on this link to Te Pou.
Or contact Mark Smith at Te Pou
Phone number: 07 857 1278
Mobile number: 027 687 7127
Engage Aotearoa recommends the Canterbury Mental Health Directory as a great place to start if you would like to seek help with an emotional, relational or mental health issue. It lists a number of support groups in Canterbury.
If you are asking yourself questions like these: “What sort of help do I need? Who should I go to? What will it cost? How private will it be? Will I have to wait?” this directory attempts to answer these and other questions in understandable language and with your best interests at heart. The directory can be found here. (Note from Engage: You could also try out our Community Resources Directory, which has some South Island entries.)
The website also features a superb guide for starting out seeking help, found here.
Here are a half a dozen recent highlights from our Facebook page. Please LIKE US!
Nuggets
Kiwi tastes a golden nugget. It’s delicious. Superb animated film about addiction.
Writing from the Toi Ora Creative Writers in the ArtWeek zine
Toi Ora writers make a splash: writing from Matthew Savage, Liz Higgins, Andrew Holdaway and more.
Nine Things Every Parent with an Anxious Child Should Try
Your child turns to you and says, “I don’t want to take the bus. My stomach hurts. Please don’t make me go.” A discussion
Public lecture by Professor Rosalind Gill: Sexting, sexualisation and sexism
Modern youth sexuality, sexting and the sexy selfie. 27 November 2014, 6pm.
Finding the Treatment Options that Suck Less
The Crazymeds Manifesto: to help you find treatment options that suck less.
Worst Things to Say to a Person With Bipolar Disorder
When your friend or loved one has bipolar disorder, here are the worst things you can tell them.
The following links are a summary of the IIMHL AND IIDL UPDATE – 15 NOVEMBER 2014
If you want further information on the IIMHL organisation go here. To sign up for their mailing list go here.
For general enquiries about these links or for other IIMHL information please contact Erin Geaney at erin@iimhl.com.
Also recommended in the update are:
Effective parenting programmes: A review of the effectiveness of parenting programmes for parents of vulnerable children
(2014, April 14). Wellington: Families Commission
New Zealand practice guidelines for opioid substitution treatment
(2014, April). Wellington: Ministry of Health
The following is a deatiled release on ‘Trauma and “Trauma-Informed” Care’ from SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association of the USA).
The recently released Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 57, Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services (Trauma TIP), offers behavioral health service providers and program administrators information and practices to assist people who have experienced repeated, chronic, or multiple traumas. People who experience trauma are more likely to exhibit pronounced symptoms and consequences, including substance misuse, mental illness, and other health problems. For this reason, addressing trauma is a public health priority under the SAMHSA Trauma and Justice Strategic Initiative.
Trauma results from an event or a series of events that subsequently causes intense physical and psychological stress reactions. The individual’s functioning and emotional, physical, social, and spiritual health can be affected. Some of the most common traumatic experiences include violence, abuse, neglect, disaster, terrorism, and war. People of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations, and economic conditions may experience trauma. Trauma can affect a person’s functional ability – including interacting with others, performing at work, and sleeping – and contribute to responses – including isolation, anxiety, substance misuse, and overeating or under eating – that can increase health risks. Behavioral health service providers can benefit greatly from understanding the nature and impact of trauma and the benefits of a trauma-informed approach.
Adopting trauma-informed policies may require a fundamental cultural shift within organizations intended to promote a greater sense of equality and safety. This may lead to changes in governance and leadership; organizational policy; engagement and involvement of people in recovery, trauma survivors, consumers, and family members; cross-sector collaboration; services and interventions; training and workforce development; protocols and procedures; quality assurance; budgeting and financing; evaluation; and the physical environment of the organization.
This is a request for patients/consumers/family/whanau interested in being interviewed to tell their story about their experience of being on what are known as ‘high risk medicines’.
As you may know in May 2013 the Commission launched a national patient safety campaign to reduce harm from falls, healthcare associated infections, surgery, and medication.
As part this campaign, the Commission wants to develop consumer stories involving high-risk medicines. High-risk medicines include anticoagulants (eg, warfarin, heparin), opioids (eg, morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl), insulin, concentrated potassium injection and disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (eg, methotrexate, azathioprine).
Listening to the experiences of health consumers is at the heart of consumer engagement within the health system. The stories give staff and decision-makers a window into the consumer’s world, their experience of the health service and their perceptions of the quality of care they received. You might like to share things like:
The Commission wants to find patients and clinicians willing to be involved and tell their stories. These stories will be provided to a wide range of people working in the health and disability sector, and will be aimed at health policy and decision-makers as well as the general public.
The commitment required is a couple of phone calls as way of introduction, setting up the interview etc., an initial interview, and review of the written story to make sure you are happy with it. If it is an audio visual one then obviously the commitment may require some travelling to where you can be filmed and things like travel and reimbursement will be discussed.
If you are interested, or want more information please ring Natalie Ganley on 021 322 205 or e mail her at Natalie.ganley@hqsc.govt.nz where you will be able to find out more and have all your questions answered. Natalie works Monday to Wednesday in the Auckland office (of the Health Quality & Safety Commission) where the land line is Ph: 09 580 9075
The Government has banned psychoactive substances as from midnight Wednesday 7th May 2014 until such substances can be deemed totally safe for users.
Click here for some street reactions from The Wireless
It can be expected that some people will have stockpiled supplies and may use them a little more indiscriminately than usual, others may be resorting to illegal means to purchase supplies and others, hopefully most, will choose to no longer use these now illegal substances.
Many previous users will be able to manage their withdrawal process; however others may experience significant withdrawal symptoms that may last for several weeks or even months.
The Ministry of Health has provided a one page sheet providing advice to people withdrawing from psychoactive substances. This sheet may also be helpful for people supporting someone facing withdrawal: Getting Help-Psychoactive Substances
MEDIA RELEASE – UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL – 18.02.2014
A survey of 1829 New Zealanders prescribed antidepressants, the largest sample ever surveyed, has found high rates of emotional and interpersonal adverse effects. The abstract of the paper, just published online in Psychiatry Research, follows:
Background: In the context of rapidly increasing antidepressant use internationally, and recent reviews raising concerns about efficacy and adverse effects, this study aimed to survey the lived experience of the largest sample of AD recipients to date.
Methods: An online questionnaire about experiences with, and beliefs about, antidepressants was completed by 1829 adults who had been prescribed antidepressants in the last five years.
Results: Eight of the 20 adverse effects studied were reported by over half the participants; most frequently Sexual Difficulties (62%) and Feeling Emotionally Numb (60%). Percentages for other effects included: Feeling Not Like Myself – 52%, Reduction In Positive Feelings – 42%, Caring Less About Others – 39%, Suicidality – 39% and Withdrawal Effects – 55%. Total Adverse Effect scores were related to younger age, lower education and income, and type of antidepressant, but not to level of depression prior to taking antidepressants.
Conclusions: The adverse effects of antidepressants may be more frequent than previously reported, and include emotional and interpersonal effects. Lead researcher, Professor John Read (Institute of Psychology, Health and Society; University of Liverpool) comments: “The medicalization of sadness and distress has reached bizarre levels. One in ten people in some countries are now prescribed antidepressants each year.”
“While the biological side effects of antidepressants, such as weight gain and nausea, are well documented, the psychological and interpersonal effects have been largely ignored or denied. They appear to be alarmingly common.”
“Effects such as feeling emotionally numb and caring less about other people are of major concern. Our study also found that people are not being told about these effects when prescribed the drugs.”
“Our finding that over a third of respondents reported suicidality ‘as a result of taking the antidepressants’ suggests that earlier studies may have underestimated the problem.”
Over half (55%) of young people (18-25years) reported suicidality.
“Our sample was not biased towards people with an axe to grind about anti-depressants; 82% reported that the drugs had helped alleviate their depression.”
Read, J., Cartwright, C., Gibson, K. (2014). Adverse emotional and interpersonal effects reported by 1,829 New Zealanders while taking antidepressants. Psychiatry Research
