Return to Kites Trust and a forum on supported employment

Monthly Inner City Committee Meeting with reps from nearly twelve different NGOs

I was invited by Kites Trust to sit in on the above meeting where discussion focused mostly on the legal opinion from the Wellington Community Law Centre ( www.wclc.org.nz ) regarding the implementation of two new initiates in the mental health service arena: Special Circumstances Court, for a treatment alternative to the standard prison route for repeat low level offenders with mental health issues; and a new funding program for teenage parents. It is interesting to me that the Community Law Centre works for these NGO's collectively to review potential issues of discriminatory practices and policies by government and other serve organizations. The law centre has several lawyers who tackle the legality of various emerging issues. This Inner City Comm. is a forum for review and discussion of the congruency of policy and practices with the national movement for combating discrimination and stigma for people with experience of mental illness. This proved to be a good discussion that allowed many perspectives to be heard and considered. Another discussion brought some focus to issues of suicide and points made that have been found to mark dropped rates in the national suicide rate in New Zealand in recent years.

Kites Trust Team Building

Preparing the afternoon tea for the team building session with Kites Trust

I was invited to take part in the monthly team building session at Kites Trust ( www.kites.org.nz ). Above you can see Eileen and Ruth are setting up the afternoon tea at the Wellington Croquet Club, the site for the afternoon's team building session. Ruth Jackson is one of the featured writer's in the book "Stepping out of the Shadows", a very insightful account of mental illness and service experiences that the authors have lived through, and then achieved personal recovery and wellness.

Kim is focusing on how to best apply the recently discussed team strategies 

Our Wellington Croquet veteran explains the rules of the game and team strategies

Margaret works at applying the team strategy

The Visitor as team player, trying to make the opposing team work harder for their points.

Below is the locale of where I joined a group presentation on supported employment programs for refugees and people with mental illness. The Wellington area has at least six different NGOs whose services focus on helping people with disabilities find and keep jobs. The refugee programs involve many supportive services here, from translators, to housing, therapy and employment services. Margaret Donald who had long ago worked with the Kites Trust is now providing her own referral service for primary care providers. She works with many general practitioners who refer people with mild to moderate mental health needs for Margaret to connect to the appropriate services in Wellington. Margaret has a nursing background and does a lot of work getting people with experience of mental illness connected to effective services. Her offices are located adjacent to many of the refugee services available here. Margaret organized todays presentation on supported employment services in this area, which involved the Multicultural Services Centre that specializes in refugee and migrant communities in Wellington. This group is connected to the Wellington Refugees as Survivors trust that I visited last week. These are essential services that provide effective supports for people with mental illness experiences that are often the result of trauma. Being able to return to work or find work is known to be critical to effective recovery for the person and their community life. Discrimination and stigma issues continue to find challenging initiatives from these service providers.

These large buildings are all part of the Wellington Regional Hospital complex