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The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1: Launch & Order Details

The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1 is a FREE book of inspiring stories and personal tips from four people who have recovered from the experience of being suicidal.

Launch Details:

NOTE: Event Moved to Sunday 13th of October due to rain forecast for Saturday the 12th. 

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Engage Aotearoa will be launching The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1 at Fiesta in the Park on the 13th of October for Mental Health Awareness Week. Come along to the free public concert and pop into The Butterfly Diaries Tent – a quiet corner covered in white paper butterflies where you can stop by to decorate a butterfly with a survival tip of your own, pick up a copy of the book, relax with a copy in the reading corner or listen to the authors and editors read from the book.

  • Where: Fiesta in the Park, Western Park, Ponsonby, Auckland
  • When: From midday Sunday 13 October 2012
    Reading Times:
    12:30 – 1:00 pm Michelle Bolton reads from Breathe and Breathe and Breathe by Phoebe Wright
    1:30 – 2:00 pm Owen Bullock reads from Enough Angels
    2:30 – 3:00 pm Miriam Larsen-Barr reads from Welcome to Today by Henrietta Bollinger
  • 3:30 – 4:00 pm Raewyn Alexander reads from Emerging from the Past, Transformed

The Butterfly Diaries, Volume 1
Four true stories of transformation told by four New Zealand writers.

  • Stories by Raewyn Alexander, Henrietta Bollinger, Owen Bullock and Phoebe Wright.
  • Foreword by Mike King
  • Edited by Miriam Larsen-Barr and Michelle Bolton

In Aotearoa, New Zealand, 1 in 6 people have suicidal thoughts each year. It is a normal human response to feel hopeless sometimes. It takes a great deal of distress tolerance, brute determination, skill development, support and understanding to survive the urge to act on those thoughts and feelings when they arise. But hardly anyone ever talks about suicidal thoughts and feelings, making it even harder for people to find out how to get through. The Butterfly Diaries gives voice to the stories of those who have been there and made it out alive. Sean, Jane, Mary and Brad have all been suicidal, survived their own suicide attempts and found their way to a place where they are glad to be living their lives. In The Butterfly Diaries they share how they strengthened their wings and learned to fly.

The first edition of The Butterfly Diaries Volume 1 will be placed in high-schools and GP waiting rooms across the NZ, to make recovery stories easy to find. Suicide rates peak among youth and most people who are suicidal visit a GP in the months leading up to making an attempt, even if they do not talk about how they are really feeling.

How to Order Copies

You can nominate a service or person to receive a copy of The Butterfly Diaries or order a copy for yourself by making a donation on the Engage Aotearoa website to cover the cost of posting your book. Just fill in your details and give the delivery address in the space provided. The minimum donation is set at NZ$2.50 (the cost of NZ postage and handling). A donation of $5 will get a copy posted for you and cover the costs of printing a copy for someone else.

Click here to order a copy of The Butterfly Diaries

Contact Engage Aotearoa for more information

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Want to help prevent suicide in NZ?

You can help get more copies of The Butterfly Diaries out there for people to read. Sponsor a print run by making a donation on the Engage Aotearoa website.  Every donation over $5 is tax deductible. A $20 donation pays for eight more books. A $500 donation prints enough books for a small school. 

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

 

 

International Petition Demands “Let us see Drug Data! Drug hazards are not trade secrets”

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.

Click here to sign the petition.

Kiwi Woman Receives Award for Contribution to Mental-Health Services in NZ

New Zealander Anne Helm has received the 2013 Award for Exceptional Contribution to Mental Health Service in Australia or New Zealand by The Mental Health Services (TheMS) Conference.

Anne Helm has worked tirelessly to highlight psychiatric abuse and advocate for change within mental health services in New Zealand. She has been at the forefront of the consumer movement in New Zealand for over thirty years and remains as passionate about the issues today, devoting time and energy to the cause of recovery and resolving issues from the past.

Anne’s work includes:

  • Panel member of the Confidential Forum for Former Inpatients of Psychiatric Hospitals established by the New Zealand Government.
  • Subsequent advocacy for a government response to the Forum findings including appearing in the Mental Notes documentary
  • Advocacy and advisory work at local and national level
  • Work to promote the elimination of seclusion within mental health services in New Zealand.

August e-Bulletin from Te Pou

The August e-Bulletin is out from Te Pou.

Read it online here.

Inside the August e-Bulletin

  • Developing an outcomes culture
  • Te Pou news
  • Sector notices
  • Job vacancies
  • In the news
  • Events

Funding Cuts to Talking Therapies Hits the News

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.

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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. 

 

CMHRT Welcomes New Board Members

Community Mental-Health Resources Trust (CMHRT) have elected four new Trustees to the board that sits behind the Engage Aotearoa website. The board now has nine trustees and is looking forward to what the future will bring. 

Meet the New CMHRT Trustees:

Taimi Allan is known for her high quality work on New Zealand’s ‘Like Minds, Like Mine’ programme, for the creation of reTHiNK, for her role at Mind and Body Consultants, as an expert speaker on social media for suicide prevention and as being a pragmatic and diplomatic policy advisor. As a leader in the field of mental health in New Zealand, Taimi is a highly sought after presenter, with measured success in reducing stigma and discrimination through innovative health promotion strategies including tailored education and training packages, social technology, media communications, entertainment and event production.

Emma Edwards holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology (University of Otago) and MSc in Health Psychology (University of Auckland). She is currently completing her Doctorate. Emma worked in the mental health field for approximately 4 years at the NGO Recovery Solutions (formerly Challenge Trust). She held roles as a support worker and then a DAPAANZ registered mental-health professional at a residential intensive rehabilitation service. Emma then became the Service Coordinator and established a new youth respite mental health service. When she began her doctorate, Emma worked as a trainer for Recovery Solutions, facilitating trainings and advising staff. Emma has service-user and family experience with mental health struggles and is passionate about working hard to impact mental health perceptions, policies, and resources on a larger scale.

Dean Manly has a background in supported employment, project research and writing, strategic planning, delivery and evaluation, and NGO Governance. Dean graduated from The University of Auckland Faculty of Arts with a MA (1st Class Hons) in 2000. His Doctor of Philosophy Research (2009) investigated representations of mental-health problems in cinema in order to examine the myths and assumptions shared by the popular culture media. He found stereotypes of the ‘Other’ are coded into western culture images and narratives. This was especially true for disenfranchised or marginalised groups othered by society. Dean is known for roles as National Manager of the Like Minds, Like Mine Project for the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand and previous chairperson of the Council for Mental Wellbeing Trust (now Changing Minds).

Sheree Veysey is a counsellor and trainer who was initially drawn to working in the field of mental health through her lived experience of mental unwellness. She is passionate about people finding their own unique recipes for wellbeing and recovery which attend to the whole person and their situation. She has a Masters of Social Practice, Bachelor of Communication Studies and is a provisional member of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors. Sheree is also a writer and musician, as well as an adoring auntie and dog owner.

Impact of Welfare Reforms on People with Mental-Health Problems and Disabilities

Carmel Sepuloni, CEO of Vaka Tautua writes about the welfare reforms that came into effect on the 15th of July…

Welfare reforms and the impact on those living with mental health issues and/or disability

The truth is that some view the recently announced welfare reforms as the ‘kick in the butt’ that the unemployed need to get them actively looking for work. If only it were that simple. If only jobs were plentiful and barriers to employment didn’t exist.

I decided to look specifically at the changes in relation to those living with disability and / or with mental health issues – at the end of the day we at Vaka Tautua need to know how our Pacific clients are impacted by these changes.

When looking over the submissions to this bill there was no mistaking that there is strong support and appreciation for appropriate employment. No one denied the positive impact that appropriate employment can have on people’s physical, mental, emotional, social and financial wellbeing. There was general acceptance of the changes to the benefit titles – in fact some felt that this was a positive move, citing a negative stigma attached to previous titles. However there were some very real and serious concerns raised about the legislation.

Keep Reading on the Vaka Tautua website…

Updates from the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership

Following is a series of articles from the May IIMHL Update

Greater Choice of Clinician in England

From April this year people referred by their GP to secondary mental health providers in England have the right to choose the professional-led team (which may or may not be led by a psychiatrist) which treats them. From April next year this choice at the point of referral will be extended further, to include choice of provider as well as choice of team within that provider.

The policy was set out in a recent consultation response. The accompanying ‘choice framework’ sets out patient entitlements:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-response-to-the-consultation-on-proposals-for-greater-patient-involvement-and-more-choice

The policy lead for this work within the Department of Health mental health policy team is Michael West (michael.west@dh.gsi.gov.uk). He would be happy to discuss this work further with anyone who is interested.

Well-being in the UK

Measuring National Well-being: Life in the UK 2012 provides a unique overview of well-being in the UK today. The report is the first snapshot of life in the UK to be delivered by the Measuring National Well-being programme and will be updated and published annually. Well-being is discussed in terms of the economy, people and the environment. Information such as the unemployment rate or number of crimes against the person are presented alongside data on people’s thoughts and feelings, for example, satisfaction with our jobs or leisure time and fear of crime. Together, a richer picture on ‘how society is doing’ is provided.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171766_287415.pdf

Probation Services and Mental Health
(2012, December). London: Centre for Mental Health
Report
Research suggests that 39% of offenders supervised by probation services have a current mental health condition. Yet mental ill health in the probation caseload is, for the most part, unrecognised and untreated. This briefing paper summarises the current and potential future links between health and probation services relevant to the needs of offenders with mental health conditions. It is based on data collected by the University of Lincoln showing the prevalence of a range of mental health conditions among one probation service caseload and the proportion of those people receiving treatment and support (Brooker et al., 2012).

E-mental Health: What’s all the fuss about?
(2013, January). London: NHS Confederation. Discussion paper number 12
Report
This paper looks at how the mental health sector might make the most of opportunities offered by e-mental. It gives examples of how service users, mental health providers and other organisations are already embracing e-mental health to bring about change.

Developing Family Leadership
A Discussion Paper on Personalised Transition from The Centre for Welfare Reform

Dr Pippa Murray, ibk initiatives, June 2011

Increasingly public services are waking up to the need to let families lead – not abandoning them, not burdening them – but building the right kind of supportive relationships that let families control their own destiny with respectful support. This discussion paper by Pippa Murray is a product of our Personalised Transition programme and reflects practical learning across Yorkshire and Humber.

To download a copy of this report, use the following link:

http://bit.ly/developing-family-leadership

General enquiries about this update or for other IIMHL information please contact Erin Geaney at erin@iimhl.com

Read the June IIMHL Newsletter online here.

Announcements from Changing Minds: Diverse City, New Manager and Mental Blocks.

Changing Minds launched the first issue of Diverse City last week, a brand new quarterly print-magazine that aims to start conversations that promote diversity and acceptance.

Find out more about Diverse City and how to get a copy on the Changing Minds website.

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Tina Helm has left Changing Minds for the shores of Australia and new manager Ainslie Gee is now settling in.

Changing Minds has opened submissions for a new project called Mental Blocks, which, like the old reTHiNK Grant, offers funds for creative community projects that change the way people think about mental-health problems.

You can apply for up to $2 000 to bring your project to fruition and they say they will consider anything. 

Applications are due: Friday 30 August 2013, before 5pm.