Engage Aotearoa loves getting updates from the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership – it’s always full of really interesting and relevant links. Here are a few highlights from the September update.
A Manager’s Guide to Suicide Postvention in the Workplace: 10 action steps for dealing with the aftermath of suicide
(2013). American Association of Suicidology (AAS) and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (Action Alliance), Crisis Care Network (CCN), and the Carson J Spencer Foundation.
The guide provides clear steps for postvention, giving leadership a sense of how to immediately respond to the traumatic event, have a plan in the short-term for recovery, and consider long-term strategies for helping employees cope down the line.
Addressing the Intimacy Interests of People with Mental Health Conditions: Acknowledging Consumer Desires, Provider Discomforts and System Denial
The Temple University Collaborative announces the availability of a new monograph focusing upon the intimacy concerns of individuals with mental health conditions. Acknowledging that sexual intimacy is a lifelong priority for all men and women, the monograph reviews current mental health research on the topic, the issues raised by men and women with mental health conditions with regard to the barriers they face in developing satisfactory intimate lives, and the uneasiness of most community mental health practitioners in discussing intimacy and sexuality with the people they serve. The monograph, which offers initial recommendations for the mental health community, seeks to initiate a national dialogue on these issues. You can view this document on the website, here:
Podcast: Michael Kendrick PhD
Michael Kendrick is an international expert on personalised funding approaches for people living with mental illness. Michael has worked in the fields of mental health, disability and aged care for nearly 30 years. He has advised governments and community organisations in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Central America.
In this memorial lecture he talks about “a life lived well”.
http://www.mifellowship.org/news/15th-bruce-woodcock-memorial-lecture-podcast
2014 Leadership Exchange
The 2014 Leadership Exchange will be in England from 9-13 June. Registration is now open via www.iimhl.com and a list of the available themes for the two day matches on the 9th and 10th of June is available for IIMHL members to select from. The venue is the United Events – Old Trafford, Manchester for the two day combined meeting on the 12th and 13th June in Manchester. A draft agenda will be available soon. Further information on the IIDL host sites and agenda will also be available in due course
Any leader in mental health, addiction and disability services can join IIMHL or IIDL free by using this link: http://www1.iimhl.com/Join.asp
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.
The August e-Bulletin is out from Te Pou.
Inside the August e-Bulletin
Issue 8 of the newsletter for New Zealand leaders from the mental health, addiction and disability sectors has just come out. The newsletter aims to keep you up-to-date with the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL), the International Initiative for Disability Leadership (IIDL) and other developments within New Zealand and internationally.
You can now read the archive of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership Updates online.
2013 Leadership Exchange
Copies of video interviews with delegates attending the Network Meeting are now available on the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership website, along with the whiteboard narratives and workshops notes: www.iimhl.com
Copies of keynote speakers’ presentations will be available shortly and IIMHL will also update you all on the formal evaluation in due course.
IIMHL Features
Sebelius: Bring mental illness out of the shadows
President Obama following lead of John Kennedy 50 years ago on improving access to care.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius speaks during the opening plenary of the National Health Policy Conference organized by The Academy Health February 4, 2013 in Washington, DC
Story Highlights
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/02/04/kathleen-sebelius-on-mental-health-care/1890859/
Creating A Place Of Healing and Forgiveness: The Trauma-Informed Care Initiative at the Women’s Community Correctional Center of Hawaii
Below is a link to a program brief that describes the Trauma-Informed Care Initiative at the Women’s Community Correctional Center of Hawaii, which is working to make the facility a “place of healing and forgiveness.” Blending traditional Native Hawaiian concepts with the latest research on trauma-informed practices, the facility’s leadership has created a unique collaborative process for organizational change that includes staff, inmates, former inmates, community members, and representatives of community-based human service agencies. With a focus on educating staff, inmates, community partners, and the public about the value of trauma-informed environments and practices in healing, TICI creates opportunities for women to “live a forgiven life.”
This technical assistance document was developed by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) and Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. (AHP) under contract for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and was written by Darby Penney.
http://www.nasmhpd.org/docs/NCTIC/7014_hawaiian_trauma_brief_2013.pdf
IIDL Feature
Self Directed Disability Support (SDDS): Building community capacity through action research
This Australian research project explores how people with disability manage the transition towards self-directed disability support. Set against a backdrop of substantial reform with the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), it is a collaboration between representatives of people with a disability and academic institutions to “investigate the impact and effectiveness of changes to self directed options for people requiring support, informal carers and support providers. It will also be a formative baseline for a longitudinal study examining service delivery systems pre and post the introduction of the NDIS”.
http://www.sprc.unsw.edu.au/media/File/SDDS_research_plan_FINAL.pdf
2014 Leadership Exchange
The 2014 Leadership Exchange will be in England in June. City and date TBC soon.
Please note: IIMHL try to find articles, new policies, research that has been released or opinion pieces they think are interesting to reflect on. Sometimes those who receive these may feel is not accurate either for its use of data or not aligned with their views. IIMHL does not endorse any article it sends out as they try to rapidly share information.
Fran Silvestri
President and CEO, IIMHL
General enquiries about this update or for other IIMHL information please contact Erin Geaney at erin@iimhl.com.
Changing Minds is pleased to announce the public release of “Partnership and Tangata Whai Ora: Report from Changing Minds Community Forum.” The report contains feedback from a range of forum attendees and other interested tangata whai ora, and we hope that this information will be well received by mental health and addictions service providers. Our goal is to provide a space for tangata whai ora to speak, and this report holds a great deal of wisdom and insight into what services are currently doing and how things could be improved. It describes challenges that people have faced, and recommendations for improving the quality of services for everyone…Read More
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.
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.
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:
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:
To apply, please send a brief CV, photograph and cover letter to Engage Aotearoa.
Engage Aotearoa and Key to Life Charitable Trust will be taking the Mike King Korero to Kawakawa on the 7th of May for two sessions at Bay of Islands College. In the morning, students at Bay of Islands College will get the chance to take part in the Cool to Korero seminar that aims to encourage students to talk about their problems with people they trust before things get on top of them. In the evening, community members will be able to take part in the Community Korero to discuss how to help prevent suicide in their town.
Click here to check out photos and feedback from the Whangarei Korero.
