Rotorua 4U Forum, 22 February 2007

"My visit was absolutely worthwhile, I was able to give feedback on all the projects" - Forum visitor

At the close of the Napier forum, the Te Pou Team, tired but uplifted by the response from people, drove to Rotorua to set up for the next day's forum. The weather followed us and we were greeted by another wonderful summer's day with a crowd to match.

On setting up, we all started to wonder if the venue had under floor heating and, as the temperature rose and rose during the day, we realised that the hotel was located in the Whakarewarewa Thermal Village!

Here are some of the main themes that came through the day:

• Leadership was seen as a big issue and, in particular, succession planning. An example was given of promising young staff, with leadership potential, unable to progress because all managers' jobs require prior experience. The staff member had no opportunity to gain the experience and so had to leave to progress. Many felt practical online tools, and highlighting the issue, would be helpful. Some thought an arena to highlight innovative service would be great, but recognised the tall poppy syndrome barrier to this.

• Organisational development support tools were supported, eg, succession planning, recruiting and valuing staff, running effective team meetings and documenting them.

• An international job exchange website was greeted with enthusiasm, and seen as a great way to support staff who needed a new environment but didn't necessarily want to resign from where they worked.

• NGOs were discussed by people who worked in and with them. Some felt it would be helpful if every staff member who worked in an NGO had a support worker certificate as the minimum qualification. NGOs felt a resource area on the Te Pou website, that linked with national organisations, such as Platform, would be helpful. Many NGOs were unaware of MH-SMART, but were interested in outcomes and how that might work for them. They wanted to be included in discussions.

• Service user themes included a desire to see consumers and iwi taking part in everyone's training. Also, there is a desire to have Te Pou evaluate the current consumer advisor training. Some felt the service user strategy document should be on the Te Pou website. A national direction for peer support would be helpful, and the promotion of peer support as a valued part of the workforce, too. Some requested supervision training for service users and the development of the service user workforce through graduated training.

• Training was discussed in regard to national consistency; an example of inconsistency was that risk and restraint minimisation is being implemented differently within different DHBs.

• Other areas of interest included, the lack of a clear framework to enable the nurse practitioner mode to progress and the need to ensure that research undertaken has a clinical component.

 

 

Page last updated: 2 May 2008