A new campaign encouraging recovered sufferers of mental illnesses to help others hopes to build on the success of earlier work , including that of former All Black John Kirwan, who has been actively involved in mental health and depression awareness campaigns.
Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
Rakau Roroa - which roughly translates to "tall trees" - is an initiative to recruit, train and support people who have experienced mental distress and to help others.
Run by the group Changing Minds, the initiative will offer support through mentors, facilitators and community leaders.
It is aiming to be unlike previous campaigns that involved people telling their stories, and ran the risk of retraumatising the person and their audience.
Changing Minds chief executive Tami Allan said she was confident people would approach them with ideas.
"So, some people who come to us say 'I would like to do an art exhibition, I would like to write a script for Shortland Street, or I would like to write a short film or something like that.
"So we are hoping people will come with an idea of what they want to do, and then we'll be able to guide them to give them the right mentor for what they want to do."
The initiative is funded by the Health Promotion Agency, with projects funded by a small grants fund from the Like Minds, Like Mine project.
Ms Allan said discrimination remained an enormous barrier for people with mental health issues.
"And that's not because they're not skilled, qualified or competent at their roles," she said.
"It's because the fear and the discrimination that ties around when people disclose that they have some parts of their lives that they might need some support around."
She said it was also about countering the number of negative stories about mental health, including the perception that people with a really serious mental health diagnosis do not recover.
"What happens is when people do recover they go back into hiding, generally.
"They don't like to talk about those experiences anymore because we know we're going to be judged for them. So, we're encouraging those people that have recovered from really serious mental distress experiences to be leaders in this campaign," she said.
The first cohort, which is expected to start early next year, will include between 8 and 16 trained leaders in four areas.
Organisers hoped that number would grow to 140 in three years.
Mentors will wear a badge so they are easily identifiable as leaders in mental health who are confident, capable and competent about sharing their experience of mental health and distress.
"So that we don't just have negative stories about mental health in the media, but there's more than just a handful of people saying that there's good news stories, there's hundreds of people saying good things can come out of challenging experiences," she said.
Where to get help:
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Lifeline: 0800 543 354
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