Getting New Zealand "up to speed"

While New Zealand has made some good progress in getting the topic of domestic / partner violence well-publicised and increasingly well researched (which it needs to, having one of the, if not THE, highest rates in the world http://goo.gl/UgM8sE ), it certainly needs to do much more to assist survivors of such violence, and often related other forms of childhood adversity. It has recently again been discussed at a national conference for nurses. I have been invited to submit a discussion paper, from the viewpoint of a mental health service consumer / survivor of such childhood adversity to one of the country's peak bodies, going by the Maori name Nga Hau E Wha http://goo.gl/dSFkx5

In August I contributed material to a member's request for information on trauma-informed hospital systems, and I would like to present in my paper mentions of developments elsewhere in the world -- I was excited by participants' mention of such developments during the recent SAMHSA webinar on Trauma Informed Suicide Prevention.

Could people please contact me with relevant information.

I'm also interested in forming a New Zealand e-group of members / potential members of ACEsConnection, but lack means of surveying members' national locations, so could people interested in forming such a group also please contact me, whether they be current members of ACEsConnection or not.

9/19/1512:39 AM

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Fiona Clapham HowardMember

Hi there Russell,

I'm another worker in the NZ mental health and addictions sector, I don't believe we've met yet? I'm based in Christchurch, but Dunedin is my home town.

I'm familiar with Nga Hau e Wha and connected to the South Island consumer reps for this roopu. I think a NZ group for ACEs is a great idea and would love to be part of it. You can check me out further via my profile here, and I'm also on Facebook, including BINZ, a Facebook page for tangata whaiora/service users/consumer activists and systemic advocates. Possibly a closed Facebook page is a good way to set up a NZ e-group for ACES?

9/27/159:46 PM

Russell WilsonMember

absolutely delighted to hear from you!!! didn't think I'd ever make a kiwi connection here :-D I'm no longer working in addictions and mental health -- have retired -- but have worked in such settings in Auckland, New Plymouth, and Whanganui --- at the end of a long career mostly spent in Australia, in various places, and a couple of years in England's "north". So, yeah, I'd love to hear more from you, what field are you working in, specifically? You'll find out some more about me at my webpage (it's free and easy to set up with my old copy of CoffeeCup HTML Editor!) http://russwilson.coffeecup.com/ the site hasn't been actually "active" for quite a while --- got discouraged, thought it might be useful to survivors, but mostly students visited and "took part" in accessing the resources. The website also has a photo of me, and some info about my own ACEs -- naturally, I don't include all details but .... So, looking forward to hearing from you again, and maybe we can "chat" some more about things in New Zealand -- history, possible developments --- especially not working down here, I'm out of touch with some things elsewhere, but I do know that some good things are happening with Trauma Informed Care in Christchurch, if not here. Maybe you can even help me work out how to find others in ACEsConnection who are in New Zealand?

9/27/1510:29 PM

Fiona Clapham HowardMember

Lovely to make the connection Russell! I've roamed around the ACEs too high site and discovered from the "map" that there are apparently 9 members in New Zealand. Wasn't too straightforward to search through 5000+ members for who the other 7 people are, but then I discovered the "advanced" search function and searched on keywords using "Auckland", "Wellington", etc. You've got one other member in Dunedin - try an advanced search on "Dunedin" and you'll find her name!

Of the 7 folk in addition to you and me, I know 4 of them through previous roles I've had in the sector and I believe I've also met the member from Dunedin. The other two names aren't known to me - yet!

So that's a bit of progress. Good to know we're not alone on these isolated islands at the bottom of the world.

9/28/157:02 PM

Russell WilsonMember

don't know how you feel about sharing your email, so we can keep in touch about "local" developments, but I've begun swapping a few emails with a nurse educator at Southland DHB, Colette Ryan Rafter, who delivered a talk on TIC at the recent MH Nurses conference, and who has today sent me this email --- great news imho:

"Hi Russell,

The presentation was well received at the College Conference and Hawkes Bay DHB made contact with me and requested that I send them information/resources etc., so that was good. I am attending a conference in Sydney in November called ‘Broken Structures, Broken Selves – Complex Trauma in the 21^st Century’, I am hopeful that this will help me to understand and learn more, and disseminate that knowledge through ongoing teaching/education. I am also looking forward to the networking opportunities that this will allow and hope that as a collective group across Australia and New Zealand we can raise the importance of recognising trauma within Mental health and Addiction settings. I agree wholeheartedly that the experts are the people themselves who have experienced trauma and there is much to learn from survivors.

Do you know Johnnie Potiki, our consumer advisor? He is in the process of putting together a consumer counsel within the DHB, is that something you would be interested in? I could put him in touch with you, if you don’t already know him. He is currently on leave, but will return on Oct 12^th. The other person that we work quite closely with is Grant Cooper from the Otago Mental Health Support Trust.

I am currently doing in-service education on Trauma Informed Care across the sector (DHB and non-DHB) and also with Public Health Nurses, I was also asked (as a consequence of the college presentation), if I could do some training with PACT staff in Wellington, unfortunately I was not able to do so, due to other commitments. The other person who contacted me was Janet Peters (Psychologist), she is very keen to have a group of people nationally to help move Trauma Informed Care and Services forward.

There is still some resistance to the work as it moves away from a medical model approach but I am optimistic for the future and I would very much like to be kept informed about your work.

Kind regards,

Colette"

I used to work for Whangaui AOD Services (Whanganui DHB) and did an annual "mini-survey" sending out a request for info about which services were doing anything about providing trauma informed services there -- several said they had "thought about it", but only Northland actually had done more (though exactly what I'm not sure) -- admittedly, this was about 7 years ago, and things "might" have improved but ...

so it'd be worthwhile getting in touch with them to see if they've kept it up -- you probably haven't thought to check them out in ACEsConnection yet, but ....

so, all up, maybe a small network could be set up soon

btw -- Colette says she's aware of ACEsConnection, but clearly doesn't get obsessive with following it up.

Slowly, ever so slowly, New Zealand IS getting up to speed. We just need "you youngsters", still working in the sector, to maintain the "rage" :-D

9/28/1510:44 PM

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