May 23, 2018
Community key to mental wellness
There’s a call for people with mental health or addiction crises to have a right to alternatives to medication.
PeerZone and Action Station are inviting members of the public to sign on to the Wellbeing Manifesto, an open submission which will be presented to the government’s Mental Health and Addiction Inquiry.
PeerZone director and former mental health commissioner Mary O’Hagan says among the groups who are ill served by the current model are Maori, who make up 15 percent of the population but 25 percent of those using mental health and addiction services.
She says at the moment the starting point for treatment is drugs and coercion, usually in a hospital setting.
"When someone is in trouble they need to be able to find help in their community, not just to get the drugs but to get talking therapies, personal support, whanau support,to get support with income, work and housing, spiritual healing and crisis support in the community, because we believe were really need to downsize the hospitals," Ms O’Hagan says.
The workforce needs to be transformed so cultural workers and peer workers who have lived experience of distress and addiction work alongside the traditional workforce with equal status.
She says mental distress and addiction are not just health problems, and the social development, justice, corrections and education sectors also need to be part of the solution.
The Wellbeing Manifesto is at https://www.wellbeingmanifesto.nz/
To read or sign the short open submission go to https://our.actionstation.org.nz/p/wellbeingmanifesto
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