ACC are the government organisation that can help people with a physical and/or mental injury suffered as a result of sexual abuse or sexual assault.
A new pathway for ACC Sensitive Claims was released in March this year.
This page provides an overview of the new ACC sensitive claims service, including its key features.
You’ll need to talk to a GP or a counselor to lodge a sensitive claim with ACC.
For more information about how to lodge a sensitive claim, click here.
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
The following is a press release from Hone Harawira, MANA Leader and MP for Te Tai Tokerau
Wednesday 12 March 2014
“Kids have a knack of saying things plain and simple” said Hone Harawira, MANA Leader and Tai Tokerau MP, following the lunch he hosted at Parliament today for 50 students from Naenae College who help run the school’s KickStart breakfast club.
“When asked why they support MANA’s Feed the Kids Bill they said they hate seeing kids having to scab food off other kids, and they’re embarrassed to have to hide their own lunches from their class mates.”
“And then they asked “Why can’t John Key make a smart decision and just Feed the Kids?”
“I was glad I was able to personally acknowledge the Naenae College seniors for fronting their breakfast club” said Harawira, “but the school’s guidance counsellor tells me it’s a real struggle organising volunteers, raising funds, and getting businesses to sponsor the extra kai.”
In question time today, which the College students observed, Mr Harawira pointed out that the government-assisted KickStart and KidsCan programmes feed about 20,000 students a day “which means that 80,000 are still going hungry … every day.”
“Even the kids are telling us that more needs to be done” said Harawira, “but government just point-blank refuses to step in.”
“In fact, Bill English thinks that hungry kids can learn just fine!”
“Honestly, it’s bloody frustrating when those who lead the country can be so dumb.”
MANA’s Feed the Kids Bill, which aims to introduce government-funded breakfast and lunch programmes for all students in decile 1-2 schools, is expected to be up for first reading in the coming months.
For further information from MANA, please contact Jevan Goulter, (022) 088-5646.
The United Nations World Happiness Report 2013 was released in September last year. The report calls on global policy makers to prioritise happiness as a key measure and target of development.
In Chapter 3, Mental Illness and Unhappiness, authors Richard Layard, Dan Chisholm, Vikram Patel and Shekhar Saxena, write: “For policy makers, the key issue is what affects happiness. Some studies show mental health to be the single most important determinant of whether a person is happy or not. Yet, even in rich countries, less than a third of mentally ill people are in treatment. Good, cost-effective treatments exist for depression, anxiety disorders and psychosis, and the happiness of the world would be greatly increased if they were more widely available.”
The Report shows the major beneficial side-effects of happiness. Happy people live longer, are more productive, earn more, and are also better citizens. Well-being should be developed both for its own sake and for its side-effects.
Read the full report here: http://www.globalmentalhealth.org/sites/default/files/WorldHappinessReport2013_online.pdf
Thanks to the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership for sharing this information.
A petition has been making its way around the internet urging drug companies to stop lawsuits blocking public access to drug trial data. The petition names physical health medications, but this issue is also highly relevant to the availability of drug trial data about psychiatric medications.
The petitioner, David Healy of Cardiff, Wales writes:
Drug companies maximize the sales of new drugs by hyping their benefits while downplaying significant risks. In 2010 the European Medicines Agency began releasing patient-level data from the clinical trials used to approve new medicines in Europe – a development hailed by American and European researchers and researchers around the world as a major step towards drug safety.
This process has been shut down by a lawsuit taken by two American corporations – AbbVie, makers of Humira, the number one selling medication in the world with projected sales of $10 billion in 2013; and InterMune, whose pulmonary-fibrosis drug Esbriet has recently been approved in Europe at a cost of over $40,000 per year.
AbbVie and InterMune have filed suit to deny access to the data from their trials on the benefits and harms of these drugs, claiming these vital facts are “trade secrets” whose release would harm their profits. Their action has led to the shutdown of the entire public-access program, leaving millions of patients worldwide, and their doctors, in the dark.
We call on AbbVie and InterMune to drop their European Union lawsuit and release all patient level data on Humira, Esbriet and their other products. Vital data on drug safety should never be hidden as a “trade secret.” By copying this petition to President Barack Obama and members of his Cabinet we call on them to ensure that meaningful public access to clinical trial data becomes the policy of the FDA and is written into any international trade agreements governing the sale of prescription drugs and devices.
Copies to:
President Barack Obama;
Margaret Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner, Food & Drug Administration;
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, United Nations;
World Health Organization Director Dr Margaret Chan.
Update: The Health Select Committee is not accepting submissions from the public for their meeting on the Petition for Better Mental-Healthcare Choices in NZ at this stage, as was advertised in the August 5th notice below. Submissions are to be accepted only from the petitioner (Annie Chapman) and the Ministry of Health.
As public submissions are typically invited, the team at Engage thought the same would be true of the meeting about the Petition for Better Mental-Healthcare Choices. We apologise for any inconvenience and frustration caused to anyone who had prepared or sent a submission in.
Click here to read Engage Aotearoa’s Submission on the Petition for Better Mental-Healthcare Choices.
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5.08.2013
The Petition for Better Mental-Healthcare Choices in NZ had it’s first reading by the Health Select Committee on the 10th of July and submissions are invited by the 23rd of August.
Find out more about making a submission here.
If these options are difficult for you, contact the chairperson of the Health Select Committee Paul Hutchison paul.hutchison@parliament.govt.nz
Contact Annie Chapman for more information on hikoiforhealth@gmail.com
Mike King and Tai Tupou are hitting the road again in September to encourage schools and communities to make it cool to korero about the tough stuff, so we all make it through.
While the team at Key to Life are getting ready to hit the road, the team at Engage Aotearoa will be adding recovery resources from each of these towns to The Community Resources Directory, so they can be delivered to those who need them when the team hits the ground in each of their locations across Taranaki. If you know of any services in the Taranaki region you think others would find useful, email them in.
Whole-person care: from rhetoric to reality in achieving parity between mental and physical health
A new Report from England argues more should be done to ensure mental health treatments are on the same level as treatments for physical health and more promotion of good mental health and improved funding into research into mental illness are all also crucial for ensuring parity of esteem between the two aspects of healthcare.
The report, developed by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in conjunction with other mental health organisations, highlights the significant inequalities that still exist between physical and mental health care, including preventable premature deaths, lower treatment rates for mental health conditions and an underfunding of mental healthcare relative to the scale and impact of it. It also highlights the strong relationship between mental and physical health. Poor mental health is associated with a greater risk of physical health problems, and poor physical health is associated with a greater risk of mental health problems.
The report makes a series of key recommendations for Government, policy-makers and health professionals, as well as the new NHS structures which came into force on April 1 including the NHS England, Clinical Commissioning Groups and Public Health England.
Professor Sue Bailey, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “Much has been done to improve mental health in the last 10 years but it still does not receive the same attention as physical health, and the consequences can be serious. People with severe mental illness have a reduced life expectancy of 15-20 years, yet the majority of reasons for this are avoidable. Achieving parity of esteem for mental health is everybody’s business and responsibility. We therefore urge the Government, policy-makers, service commissioners and providers, professionals and the public to always think in terms of the whole person – body and mind – and to apply a ‘parity test’ to all their activities and to their attitudes.
Improving Personalised Care and Support for People with Mental Health Problems
From the UK this new guide aims to increase the number of people with mental health problems experiencing the full benefits of personalised care and support. Currently, only 9% of people with mental health problems of working-age have a personal budget, compared to 29% of older people and 41% of adults with a learning disability. Paths to Personalisation, published by the National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), offers examples of what needs to be in place to make personalisation work in mental health. It provides examples drawn from latest practice and policy and up-to-date sources of advice for people. Coproduced with people who use mental health services and service professionals, the guide will help organisations meet government priorities to increase people’s choice and control over the care and support they experience.
The British Journal of Psychiatry – Special issue focussing on campaign and attitudes
This special issue focuses on stigma and discrimination in England. It describes evaluations of the ‘Time to Change’ campaign conducted in England. It also looks at employment and role of the media.
There are seven articles followed by comments by leading mental health people.
Content Page April 2013, Volume 202, Issue s55 – all open access.
Adult Mental Health Benchmarking Toolkit: Year ending 31st March 2012
(2013). Scotland: National Health Services.
Annual publication of the Mental Health Benchmarking Toolkit comprising data up to 31st March 2010. The toolkit provides information on a range of indicators to compare key aspects of the Adult Mental Health Service in Scotland.
For general enquiries about this update or for other IIMHL information please contact Erin Geaney at erin@iimhl.com
The NZ Herald has reported growing community concern over increasingly restricted funding for talking therapies across the country. Click the headline below to read the full story.
Alarm Over Depression Therapy Cuts – NZ Herald, 29 July 2013
Major insurance providers, Sovereign, have disclosed they will only fund medication and exercise as treatments for depression in future, given the cost associated with talking therapies and the number of people who need them.
In the article, Mike King of The Nutters Club and Key to Life Charitable Trust comments “I can say from experience that talk therapy absolutely works. But few people can afford it. We don’t need less talk therapy. We need to be working with the Government and insurance companies to find ways for more people to get affordable or free therapy.”
A representative from Sovereign insurance states that antidepressants are “proven to work” and uses an example of a person who is only mildly depressed following a period of unemployment as a time when talking therapy would be considered unnecessary and antidepressants considered sufficient. “This shows a misunderstanding of the research,” says Engage Aotearoa service director, Miriam Larsen-Barr, “antidepressants have been shown to be effective only at the severe end of the spectrum. People with mild to moderate symptoms can most definitely be helped with talking therapy and are much more likely to respond positively to that than antidepressant medication. People tend to have these experiences for a reason. Talking therapies help people address those reasons in ways that medication alone cannot, for all that it has its place and uses.”
One might argue that restricting treatment choices to medication or exercise alone limits service-users’ ability to make the best recovery choices for them or freely give their informed consent – choice is considered a fundamental part of consent and choice requires multiple options. This is reflected in the Health and Disability Commissioner’s Code of Consumer Rights. In the recent Partnership Report from Changing Minds, service-users specifically call for a greater range of choice when it comes to their recovery. The NZ Herald article has already inspired much debate.
Comments on Facebook posts sharing the article are calling for some kind of action to address the issue of funding for talking therapies. Funding for therapy has been an issue for quite some time. Improved access to talking therapies was one of the requests made in the Petition for Better Mental-Healthcare Choices that was delivered to parliament in June. The Health Select Committee will be meeting to discuss the petition in the next month or two, but have yet to release the date of their meeting. If you are passionate about this issue and want to add your voice to those calling for better access to the things that work, email your submission to the chairperson of the Health Select Committee Paul Hutchison at paul.hutchison@parliament.govt.nz or contact your local MP.
