Like Minds Like Mine National Seminar
I am very pleased to be asked to speak at this year's National Like Minds, Like Mine provider seminar.
The work you all do is very challenging, but thanks to your efforts there is now greater awareness and understanding of mental illness. Like Minds, Like Mine is producing some very goods results, and I'm confident we can build on the momentum the programme has created.
I would like to acknowledge Tuiloma Lina Samu, who has been the MC for this national seminar for the past six years. I understand that this year Lina is mentoring two young people, Shanara Wihongi and Hamiora "Harmz" de Thierry, from within the Like Minds programme to take on the role of MC. Good luck Shanara and Harmz and thank you Lina for all your hard work.
I would also like to thank the Mental Health Foundation who have organised this seminar. As a national Like Minds provider the Mental Health Foundation ensure the smooth delivery of communications and administration services for the whole programme.
They have played a key role in maintaining the momentum of Like Minds and ensure that Mental Health is "everybody's business". I would specifically like to acknowledge Judi Clements CEO, Materoa Mar Chair, and Dean Manley the Like Minds, Like Mine project manager at the Foundation for their commitment and drive.
I support the theme of your seminar. This seminar is the only opportunity you have as Like Minds providers to come together to share knowledge, showcase best practice and hear challenging ideas to further develop the training, education and media projects you undertake in your own communities.
It is always important to reflect on whether what we are doing is working. To ensure that what we are doing is making a difference we need to look closely at our work and assess whether it is achieving our objectives. We also need to look at what we might do differently and better. The focus of these two days is on sharing evidence on what works best and how to work smarter so that limited resources can be used effectively to continue the momentum of the Like Minds, Like Mine programme.
Mental health is one of the key health concerns facing governments, not just in New Zealand, but across the world. According to the World Health Organization, mental illness makes up 15 percent of the total burden of disease in the developed world, with depression alone said to be likely to become the second leading world-wide cause of disability by 2020. At home, we know that 47 percent of New Zealanders will experience a mental illness and/or addiction at some point in their lives, with one in five people affected in any one year.
Thankfully as a country our attitudes and behaviour towards those who experience mental illness has changed remarkably in the last decade. The outcast mentality that was identified so clearly by Judge Ken Mason in his important report in 1996, which was seen as such an impediment to people's recovery, has definitely lessened. Research indicates that people are more likely to talk about mental illness, less likely to feel ashamed and crucially more likely to step forward and support family and friends experiencing mental illness.
This has meant addressing the fear that people have about mental illness as it was this fear that often prompted people to turn away from their friends and family at a time they needed them most. A fear that was built around unhelpful and inaccurate stereotypes of violence and incompetence perpetuated by mainstream media.
The Like Minds, Like Mine programme and the work undertaken by everyone in this room has played a huge part in these changes. It has shared personal and positive accounts of people who live with mental illness, challenging those unhelpful stereotypes and asking people to form their views based on the real experience rather than the stigmatized media depiction elsewhere.
Research shows that Like Minds has brought about significant change - especially in people's perceptions of mental illness. Since Like Minds began:
- o Media reporting has become more balanced and less discriminatory
- o Awareness of mental illness has increased
- o People are more likely to seek treatment earlier for themselves or their family
- o New Zealanders say they would be less likely to be ashamed of having a mental illness
- o New Zealanders are significantly more likely to accept someone with experience of mental illness as a workmate
- o New Zealanders are more likely to think that someone with experience of mental illness is able to contribute to society
- o People with experience of mental illness have become more visible in a positive way - quashing negative stereotypes and raising awareness through leading and role-modelling recovery and interaction with the community
- o There is now a more experienced and skilled workforce of people with experience of mental illness involved at all levels of the programme, including leadership roles.
Reducing stigma and discrimination means that people are more likely to recover full social, family and economic participation. Recent research undertaken by Auckland University has indicated that the increased economic participation brought about reducing the stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness has a tangible financial benefit for New Zealand of over 13 dollars saved for every dollar spent.
We have learnt that the approach we have taken has worked. Combining high profile TV and radio ads with grass roots community programmes based on direct contact with people who have experienced mental illness in this way has been very effective. It has meant people don't just know more about mental illness but also more about issues of stigma and discrimination and the role they can play in making them a thing of the past.
Like Minds has also grown and developed its approaches. Quite early on it became apparent that people who experience mental illness needed not just a voice in the programme but to be leaders, developing their own programmes and workshops. Now I stand in front of a Like Minds workforce made up largely of mental health service users working across the country to change the way their communities understand mental illness.
We have of course also benefited from the gifts given by a series of great New Zealanders, who have shared their stories of illness and recovery with the nation as part of the Like Minds TV commercials. People like Mahinarangi Tocker, John Kirwan, Denise L'Estrange Corbet, and of course most recently Aubrey Quinn and his family will for ever have our respect for what they have contributed.
Mental Illness is a life altering event and overcoming it can be the most difficult thing many people, and their families, face. To tell the country on national television the story of how you have overcome not just the illness but also the barriers of stigma and discrimination is courageous, not to mention inspiring for others who are undergoing similar experiences.
Similarly, using your personal experiences in the way that many of you in this room do, to challenge long held stereotypes and change the way your own communities understand and respond to the issue of mental illness is equally inspiring.
The power of this personal contact, that has become central to the work you do, has changed lives across New Zealand and ensured the momentum created by early stages of the campaign has been maintained.
It is important to see the Like Minds campaign as part of the Government's broader primary health policy. I have worked as a GP and know well the importance of effective primary services in delivering mental health care. Reducing the stigma associated with mental illness, and seeking help for mental health problems, play a crucial role in the success of primary mental health as it means people are more likely to seek help earlier and to be supported by the people around them. Early, appropriate intervention is vital to achieving good outcomes. It means people are less likely to need hospital treatment and to respond better to all forms of help available.
The focus of mental health services for the past decade has been largely on improving services, especially in terms of access, for the most seriously unwell. Now we need to broaden out this approach and address services across the whole continuum of care. The earlier we provide support to someone experiencing mental health problems, the better the outcomes.
The University of Otago released a report last year on the effectiveness of the Ministry of Health-funded Primary Mental Health Services. It found that about 80 percent of people benefit from using Primary Mental Health Services. For this reason it is essential that mental health care is integrated into primary care.
The Government is working to establish multidisciplinary primary care environments, such as Integrated Family Healthcare Centres, so that people can get the help they need right away. We want a more patient-centred approach, and by giving staff such as doctors and nurses the time to interact with people, mental health problems will be picked up and addressed much sooner.
The Government wants New Zealanders to have better, sooner, more convenient primary health services, including mental health services. I'm pleased that the Government is delivering more mental health services in the primary care setting. In the May 2009 Budget, the Government invested an additional $5.3 million for primary mental health services. This will support Primary Care Practitioners to address mild to moderate mental health problems in primary health care. This should also help the work you all do, as mental health support and treatment received in primary care places the emphasis on recovery right from the start.
In the previous financial year the Government increased spending on mental health services by $85 million to $1.181 billion and we are continually reviewing the investment in mental health to ensure the most effective services are being provided.
Also linked to the Like Minds campaign is the National Depression Initiative (NDI). As stigma and discrimination associated with mental health is reduced, it is likely that more people will step forward to seek help. The NDI plays a role in encouraging those that need help to step forward and receive it.
The work you all do is challenging. It is important to maintain the momentum you have created. It is important to continue the conversations about the real experience of mental illness, to increase understanding and give people the skills to be supportive and reduce the fear that still holds so many back.
Dr Alan Wyllie, when first assessing the Like Minds Programme in 2002, highlighted the then Deputy Director General of Public Health's metaphor of a train when describing the project. Initially it takes a lot of effort to get it moving, and even then the movement is only slow. However if effort is maintained, the train eventually builds up a strong momentum. Eight years later I think we can all agree that the train is moving, and moving quickly, thanks to the combined and sustained efforts of the national and regional providers sitting here today.
There is still more work to be done. Despite the success of the programme we know that people with experience of mental illness still have to overcome barriers of stigma and discrimination in their everyday lives, and this remains as unacceptable now as it was thirteen years ago.
I support the programme's current focus on families and the role they play in supporting people experiencing mental illness. I look forward to the next phase of the TV campaign and the extra impetus that it will give you all, with its emphasis on equipping people to stay alongside their family members, to stay strong and supportive and realise that recovery is real.
Thank you for inviting me here today and I hope the rest of the seminar goes well, and that you return to your own programmes energised and enthused for the work ahead. Good luck.