As per the email we are having a Walking meeting at New Brighton tomorrow. Here are some quick notes on possible topics.
(1) Ian's email about a reading that might interest us ..
The article is about retirement planning - what interested Elaine in particular was the way it distinguished between complication and complexity. This distinction is a really important for understanding the modern world. Whether or not you read the article it is worth sorting out this idea. N4W is based on the idea that we live in a complex world - and/but lots of the stuff we do is based on the idea that we live in a complicated world - stuff like conspiracy theories rely on this distinction.
(2) Mental health The link to the discussion between Jack Tame and Matt Doocey is here. Doocey is the first ever Minister of Mental Health. I recall a couple of points from the interview - but there were more. I remember (a) the idea that there could be access to mental health through a call to 111 and (b) that one way of accessing more support for lack of specialists is to find pathways for bachelor level graduates in psychology to work in this field (only about 80 can move on to become clinical psychologists and we need 300ish) - this is waffle from Elaine - I can see that short courses in "supporting others" could be relevant to the entire community - andled by people who have resources available to them - the equivalent of Flourishing for everyone.
(3) Our survey about MeetUps: The summary is sitting in this blog - it is the following post. This survey shows that MeetUps are highly successful. I was interested in reading them from the point of view of what was missing. Whatever is missing needs to be a strength of Alt Wed. Meaningful, ongoing conversations are needed within Seven Plus - we must recreate the Wednesday session that we used to call Zoom as something that is easy to take part in, and is attractive and active and interesting. The conversations need to be accessible to everyone in Sewven Plus - they are too important to cut out people who have conflicting responsibilities. Hence Alt Wed. How do we want it to be seen in a year's time? And how do we get there? And how do we continue to use Zoom and the Blog to help this to happen?
(4) About Topics and Threads - the blog will help us clarify all this. Do we have an interest in the politics of the day? It might arise on an Alt Wed?
Technical notes -
- About access to the blog: I got into the dashboard to write this post through the sevenplus g mail account - it I had gone in through my own account it would have come from me.
- The dashboard is where you write new posts for a blog and do various other things - the administrator can alter anything on the blog from here. There is a list of things you can do on the left side - the bottom option is to go to the blog itself.
- A post is the name given to a fresh entry in the blog - it always gets to the top of the central column (unless you alter the published on date on the right column in the dashboard).
- About a gmail account: Every gmail account has access to all sorts ot things as well as gmail. If you do not know about this them checkout the nine wee dots beside your account icon/image/picture on the right of your gmail. You have access to heaps of stuff. (what is the technical language for these thingies?)
- About the links within point (1). This is the first time I have tried adding the url to an email - I have also asked it to open the link in a new window. And I did the same with the second link to the actual article.
- About Q and A on You Tube - As I understand it, the link is to the whole episode from 3 March. It is live for four weeks. After that, I suspect interviews can always be found from the Q and A on You Tube.
- About technical notes: As with most of the theories that I (Elaine) have about how the world of technology works, these ideas are tentative - I can only become confident by constantly testing out ideas - I really value the fact that I can jot down my issues here within footnotes in this blog - it is a tool for my learning - and also for anyone else who chooses to play this game. Anything with the label of techie notes has this kind of observation or question or tentative understanding. - We can gradually tidy them up.
- Understanding labels. The blog will need to consolidate its labels. but meantime, anything goes.
Thanks Elaine.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the interview with Matt Doocey. Soon after he became an MP and spokesperson for mental health, one of his first acts in that role was to reach out to NGO mental health providers and so he came into MHAPS and met with the management team. He has a background in mental health and well understood the value NGO's bring to reducing mental distress and fostering wellness and wellbeing. Importantly to us, he also appreciated the special qualities that lived experience peer support and advocacy bring to this work. I am inclined to trust what he says and the actions he proposes to take. This is not the first time however that the idea of a training a psychologist-lite workforce has been suggested.
Despite the labour government's endorsing almost all of the finding of He Ara Oranga, the mental health enquiry, not much has changed. The peer lived experience workforce is the one that can be most rapidly enlarged and deployed and yet governments continue to pay only lip service to this. Mental health clinicians are not necessarily the obstacle, for example in 2005 clinicians from the Anxiety Disorders Service here in Christchurch participated in the formation of Anxiety Support Canterbury (now part of MHAPS). Prior to that they fostered three diagnosis based peer-led support groups.
One of our biggest problems continues to be the health system's over-reliance on medications to treat mental distress. These address only symptoms and not causes and so dependancy is the outcome.
Mental illness usually, but not exclusively, arises out of some form of trauma, often from early childhood. I'm currently reading, and recommend, 'The Body Always Keeps Score', which deals with the relationship between mind, brain and body when trauma is experienced.
Nga mihi nui
Ian