Mental health needs new thinking
Focus should be on hope, not gloom, says campaigner
Gone are the days of locking the mentally ill in asylums or psychiatric hospitals and throwing away the key. That is according to the Mental Health Foundation’s advocacy alliance specialist Michael Naera on the topic of a culture shift.
He said it was hard to conceive the transition from hospitals to community care and independent living had only started to come into its own.
There were 957 individuals cared for in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board inpatient wards at Tauranga and Whakata¯ne hospitals in 2019/2020.
At the Lakes District Health Board, there were 338 admissions and 259 unique patients to the Whare Whakaue inpatient ward in the same time.
“Often mental health is viewed as an illness. For example, when we go to a health spa, a health shop or a fitness and health centre we immediately associate it with wellness.
“Mental health is about maintaining your mental fitness.”
Naera said the stigma of talking about mental health was still prevalent in communities and while mental health was in the media more than ever, the tone came from a place of crisis, intervention and treatment.
He believed the shift now was to focus the conversation on hope, not gloom.
“It’s time for us to view mental health in the light of hope. We call this tu¯ramarama ki te ora (from dark to light) in Ma¯ori.
“It’s time for change and we can do this.”
The University of Waikato is responding to the challenge with the launch of the new Bachelor of Nursing in 2021, integrating a focus on mental health and addictions throughout the three-year degree.
The programme was developed following the Government Inquiry into Mental Health
and Addiction in 2018, entitled He Ara Oranga, which made a series of recommendations about improving mental health and addiction care in New Zealand.
A leading expert in mental health nursing, Tony O’brien, is steering the degree and put simply, the programme recognises the need for a holistic view of a person when providing nursing services.
O’brien said a one-size-fits-all model for mental health didn’t work, especially for remote, rural communities, where services do not always reach those who need support the most.
“We’ll be teaching mental health as an integral part of health and therefore as an integral part of nursing.
“We have to do something different and changing the way we teach and prepare our healthcare providers of the future is a critical step in the right direction.”
Patua Te Taniwha chairwoman Mataku Ariki believed there was a massive gap in mental health and suicide services. There just was not enough for the number of people needing them, she said.
Ariki, and the other foundingmembers all had experienced suicide bereavement and that plus the whana¯u framework ensured the trust was a haven for some.
Ariki believed expressing mental ill health in a public setting was becoming easier.
“But then there is a lot of people that can’t talk or don’t want to talk about it. There is not one fix it, so we need to be able to find what works for ourselves.”