Webhealth have been collaborating with The Phobic Trust. They identified that a gap of information on Webhealth relating to Anxiety, and Phobias and The Phobic Trust, kindly gave them permission to reproduce several of their factsheets.
The Phobic Trust was established in New Zealand to provide specialist treatment, education and support specifically to anxiety disorder sufferers.
These resources are:
Here is a link to a short documentary on TRE and its creator (Dr David Berceli) the last time he was in NZ. Just for your information.
Te Pou has released a report on the results of an assessment of the mental-health promotion and prevention needs of people who identify as gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex.
You can read a summary and download the full report here.
For your information from New Zealand Council of Social Services.
‘Transition Times’ #3 forwarded on behalf of Ros Rice, CEO, NZCOSS
Please note you can access NZCOSS Facebook where Ros posts information and commentary almost daily. https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Zealand-Council-of-Social-Services/148340588547487. There is also a link on the front page of the website.
TRANSITION TIMES
Tracking changes to the NZ Government’s funding and administration of social services in our communities.
(NZCOSS is not offering opinion or critique on the information that we are providing in this mailout.)
PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS TO ALL YOUR MEMBERS
Date: 07.6.2012
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE GOVERNMENT’S PLANNED WELFARE REFORMS
FIVE MAIN AREAS OF CHANGE
CHANGES TO BENEFIT STRUCTURE
Three new main benefits:
Also: Youth Payment & Young Parent Payment (see Youth Package)
THE “INVESTMENT APPROACH”
THE YOUTH PACKAGE
PARENTS AND SOLE PARENTS ON BENEFIT
‘Subsequent child’ policy: if woman has child when on benefit:
Medical costs paid for contraceptive advice and for long-acting contraception for mothers on benefit and for their teenage daughters
DISABILITY AND LONG TERM ILLNESS
Ros Rice, Executive Officer NZCOSS
(With thanks to Michael Fletcher; Senior Lecturer, Institute of Public Policy, AUT University.)
The Coping Kete on the Engage Aotearoa website reached a milestone on the 9th of June with the publication of the One Hundredth Weekly Coping Strategy in the online kete.
Use The Coping Kete to learn new strategies online and then add them to your Personal Coping Kete for use when the going gets tough.
Engage Aotearoa have been posting a new strategy every week for the past 100 weeks. That’s nearly two years worth of new coping strategies for people who are wanting to improve their mental health and wellbeing. There are still many more to come.
Also on the horizons is The Coping Kete Handbook, a paperback collection of the first 100 strategies with some extra background information and reflection exercises.
Ruth De Souza recently had a chapter on Power Relations published in a book called Communication Across the Lifespan. She very kindly emailed this out amongst the community, as it is valuable reading for any mental-health or health practitioner.
“Introduction
Many practitioners see themselves as apolitical and powerless, particularly with regard to their relationships with the structures of medicine and management. However, in reality practitioners are powerful both as individuals and as members of the groups with which they identify. The structures and cultures within which most health and disability practitioners exist and work are based on beliefs and practices that constrain autonomy. These constraints are at work through a number of mechanisms, such as the market, the infusion of targets and performance measures and quality programmes (Newman & Vidler, 2006). In addition, the changing role of consumers or service users from passive recipients of care in the past to people who may be informed, empowered, articulate and ‘demanding’ poses a threat to the ‘knowledge–power knot’ on which professional power rests.
When practitioners view themselves as people who are doing good, they tend to lack awareness of their complicity and embeddedness in relations of power that structure inequality. Yet, power is embedded in everyday practices and interactions (Bradbury Jones, Sambrook & Irvine, 2008). Practitioners within the wider health and disability sectors contribute to social regulation through their roles as employees of the state. They enact government policies for the benefit of the health of the citizens of the state; so they are both governed and governing. Members of recognised professional groups are provided with a moral authority by their capacity to define problems and pose solutions, and their role in defining and evaluating good or normal behaviour and health practices through surveillance of the population and the criteria for interventions on behalf of the state (Gilbert, 2001, p. 201).
These ambivalent relationships with power that are evident among health professionals require exploration. This can be done by considering the various ways in which power is conceptualised and the micro and macro definitions of empowerment. Some shifts in power have occurred in the last few decades, largely influenced by various social movements. Maternity and mental health are two particular examples of professional practice and service delivery in which power can be recognised and ideas of empowerment can be translated meaningful engagement between service delivery and those who engage with the service.”
Click here to read the full chapter.
Ruth DeSouza, Senior Lecturer (Wed/Thurs and Fri am), Division of Health Care Practice, AUT University, Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142
PeerZone is shared learning for wellbeing, designed and delivered by and for people with experience of mental distress. It is a series of three hour peer facilitated face-to-face sessions (learning packages) where participants engage in mutual support, deepen their understanding of their experience and develop tools for wellbeing in all the major life domains. The face-to-face groups are backed up by online resources and a chat facility.
PeerZone is aimed at working age people, particularly younger people with severe mental distress. Their vision is that by the end of this decade, everyone who uses mental health services will be offered some kind of peer led learning and support opportunity.
Mary O’Hagan and Sara McCook Weir developed PeerZone. The learning packages were developed in 2010-2011 and they were piloted in 2011 in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2012 they will organise the initial orientation for facilitators, launch the website, and work to establish PeerZone in New Zealand.
Biting back at negative thinking – Interview with BITE BACK
How does a website help young people to change their thought patterns, and find positive ways of thinking about life’s challenges? ReachOut Pro interviewed Professor Vijaya Manicavasagar, Director of Psychological Services at the Black Dog Institute, about their positive psychology website “BITE BACK”, and how it can be used as a supplement to work with young people.
About ReachOut Pro: ReachOut Pro provides information about mental health, as well as access and advice for health professionals and youth support workers on a range of online interventions, tools and resources that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of psychosocial support and mental health care provided to young people.
Website: http://www.reachoutpro.com.au/
The Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Scottish Human Rights Commission have today launched a short animated film to raise awareness of the UN Disability Convention in Scotland.
The film has British Sign Language and captioning. It was illustrated by Ko Lik Films and produced by Glasgow Media Access Centre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUwHIbQFszU
The exact same convention has been ratified in New Zealand so the exact same rights apply here.
