Engage Aotearoa

Tag Archives: Community Resources Directory

Creative connections in the Community Resources Directory

The Creative Connections section of The Community Resources Directory has now been updated and moved online. This section lists national and local Auckland groups that provide support for creatives and opportunities to engage with the arts, explore your creative side, and get involved in the creative community.  While we are in level 3 lockdown in Auckland at the moment and we can’t physically go out to participate in these groups, many offer online resources and networks that might help to fill the gap.

That’s 13 sections you can easily browse online now and only 4 left to go.

Screenshot of Community Resources Directory contents page showing sections on Funding Mental Health Treatment in New Zealand, Acute / Crisis / Urgent Teams, Community Mental Health Centres (DHB), Community Support Services, Counsellors and Therapists in Private Practice, Creative Connections, Cultural, Refugee and Migrant Services, Disability Services, Help Lines, Psychiatrists in Private Practice, Rainbow Community Resources, Respite Services, and Service User Initiatives

Out of hiatus and open for private practice!

Engage Aotearoa is finally ready to come out of hibernation and you’ll notice a few changes have taken place over the past few months.

The big news is that after five years working full time as a psychologist within our DHB services, I have now freed myself up to add one day of private practice to the Engage Aotearoa web-resources. I have teamed up with the good folks at Changing Minds for a space to see people and am looking forward to working from a service-user led setting once again. You can find out more about my private psychology services here.

I’ve simplified things a fair bit and Engage Aotearoa has returned to its original form as a self-funded, non-profit initiative, now with a small private practice on the side to help sustain it. Over the last few years, Daniel has taught me everything I need to know to keep the website updated by myself and more than a decade after setting out on the Engage Aotearoa journey it’s an exciting step to be able move forward on my own two feet.

I am in progress with reviewing and updating all of the resources on the website. You will notice that the links to some resources have been disabled while I do this. A number of the info packs have already been reviewed and you can read them online here. The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1 has now been made available as a PDF e-book you can download and share around at will. And the Community Resources Directory has been moved onto its own series of webpages so you no longer have to download a long pdf document to read it – you can still download it to share around in the real world if you’d like though. Updating the directory after a five year hiatus is a pretty big task and a lot has changed in that time. If there is something you would like to suggest I add, do get in touch.

Please note, that I have updated my contact details.

Viva la revolution!

Miriam

Dr Miriam Larsen-Barr
DClinPsych, MNZCCPTLE



Engage Aotearoa Welcomes Two New Volunteers

Engage Aotearoa is pleased to announce two new volunteers have joined the team to help make recovery resources easier for Kiwis to find.

Catherine Beyer  has joined the team of volunteers in the role of Directory Editor and Claire Sexton has joined the team in the role of Recovery Notes Content Writer.

As Directory Editor, Catherine is responsible for maintaining and expanding the Community Resources Directory.

Catherine has worked in health promotion for over 10 years, in the fields of allergy awareness and perinatal nutrition, and also as a healthy eating programme facilitator with the Salvation Army.  At university she studied biochemistry, nutrition and public health.  She has lived experience of recovery and is passionate about advocating for service-user rights, informed consent, and non-drug alternatives to dealing with mental distress.

As Recovery Notes Content Writer, Claire will be writing a regular series of blog articles that highlight information about alternative and complementary recovery approaches. Recovery Notes will be published in the Mental-Health News and Events Blog and archived in the Information Resources section of Engage Aotearoa’s Community Treasure Chest. Recovery Notes 1 focuses on Good Mood Food.

Claire Sexton is a freelance writer and full-time mom with experience of supporting people she cares about through the experience of depression. This gave Sexton an interest in mental health in general.  After graduating college, she put a lot of effort into her career as a nutritionist, but when motherhood came along, she decided it was time to pull back and take up her other passion, writing. Now she writes about health and finds her work-life balance far more enjoyable. When not working and caring for her children, she likes to go for long walks and find ways to make family meals more exciting.

The Victory Fashion Parade | Whangarei | 28 Sep 2013

When Engage Aotearoa visited Whangarei with Mike King and Key to Life for the Community Korero earlier this year, the team met a wonderful woman named Vicky Flavell who wanted to put her passion for fashion design behind a good cause.

The Victory Fashion Parade brings together designers from the Far North for a night of style, with all proceeds going towards Engage Aotearoa’s project to get printed copies of The Community Resources Directory and The Butterfly Diaries out into communities across the country. Making help easy to find when people are struggling is an important part of preventing suicide in NZ. Now, the people of Whangarei can help make that happen just by enjoying a good night out with their friends.

  • 6 pm, Saturday 28 September 2013
  • Toll Stadium, Whangarei
  • Tickets $40
  • Contact no. 021 144 6080

Victory Fashion Parade Whangarei 28 Sep 2013

 

 

Two Volunteer Opportunities at EngageNZ

EngageNZ needs two volunteers to help keep two of their most widely-used recovery resources happening, The Community Resources Directory and the Mental-Health News and Events Blog. These resources aim to inform the public about what recovery resources are available for them – information is power and sharing information is an empowering act. By volunteering for Engage Aotearoa you can help empower others to find what works for them.

  • Do you have a lived experience of recovery or supporting a loved one on their journey?
  • Do you want to help make it easier for other people to find what they need to recover?
  • Do you have a home computer and internet access?

If you answered yes to those three questions, you might be just the person EngageNZ is looking for. You can be based anywhere in the country, because you will be working mainly online.

 Volunteer Community Resources Promoter

You would be responsible for finding and adding information about recovery resources to The Community Resources Directory and sending in an updated directory at the start of each month. You will be as passionate as EngageNZ is about connecting people across the country with the resources they need to recover from mental-health problems. So much is available, but it so hard to find out about it. Your work will help solve that problem. Some information you will receive by email and other information you will need to find through your own research and detective-work.

Skills Needed:

  1. Computer literacy – Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, Email, Google & web searches
  2. Written communication – can summarise information and communicate clearly in writing, can proof-read and edit, can format written work so it is easy to read
  3.  Reliability – can spend 3 hours a week updating the Directory and responding to people who have contacted you with information, can stick to regular deadlines, can check emails at least once every 2 days and provide prompt responses
  4. Assertiveness – can identify gaps and self-motivate to find what is needed to fill them. You are a creative thinker who does what needs to be done and seeks the help they need to do it.

 Volunteer Mental-Health News and Events Blogger

You would be responsible for updating the Mental-Health News and Events Blog twice a week. There are so many events, groups and announcements happening in and around the mental-health sector. Your work will help make sure they can all be found easily, in one place. You will receive mental-health news and events notices by email and twice a week you will add them all to the Mental-Health News and Events Blog using WordPress and share the most interesting ones on the Engage Aotearoa Facebook Page.

Skills Needed:

  1. Computer literacy – Microsoft Word, WordPress, email, Facebook, Google & web searches
  2. Written communication – can summarise information and communicate clearly in writing, can proof-read and edit to suit the Engage style-guide, can format writing so it is easy to read
  3. Reliability – can spend 2 hours, two times every week updating the mental-health news and events blog and is able to stick to regular deadlines (4 hours a week)
  4. Assertiveness – can identify gaps and limitations and take proactive steps to resolve them, you are able to seek help and ask questions when you need to.

Interested? Your questions and queries are welcome.

To apply, please send a brief CV, photograph and cover letter to Engage Aotearoa.

Updated Community Resources Directory

The latest updates to The Community Resources Directory are now live on the Engage Aotearoa website for general browsing or sharing.

Our Information Manager has just added 5 pages worth of community resources – and we are pleased to announce that we have begun including services from around the country. The services remain predominantly Auckland-based or National offices, but we are on our way. We have added a new nation-wide Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse help section as well.

You’ll also notice we’ve got a shiny new, colour portal button too.

Happy New Year from us here at Engage Aotearoa to everyone out there.

Wishing you metaphorical blue skies for 2012.