Service user workforce development

Te Pou has a mandate to develop the entire workforce, including service users. While Te Pou is one agency providing leadership on service user workforce development there are others such as the Werry Centre (child and youth), Te Rau Matatini (Maori) and Matua Raki (addictions), Mental Health Commission, Mental Health Foundation, and DHBs and NGOs, who all have a role in developing the service user workforce.

Te Pou aims to provide opportunities to grow and develop the service user workforce nationally, and in doing so needs to work with all these other organisations to affect this aim.

Te Pou continues to develop a service user workforce strategy which will identify and finalise initiatives for the next two years. The direction for the strategy evolves from the service user leaders meeting held in February 2008, the Service User Workforce Development Strategy 2005, and Te Kokiri.

The strategy will include plans for:

• scoping the service user workforce in New Zealand - who, what, where, training available and funding implications (this will include the Like Minds, Like Mine initiative)
• a national peer support forum for late 2008 or early 2009, including national peer support competencies, national peer support union and career pathways - discussion at the forum will enable agreement as to how these issues could be addressed 
• developing a description of and guidelines for the role of peer support
• reviewing the Mental Health Commission's Service User Workforce Development Strategy 2005, including achievements, current relevance and whether a new action plan is required
• considering how mentoring and support for service user leaders could be developed - this could include issues of supervision, mentors and coaches
• identifying where Te Pou can work collaboratively with and support other key initiatives.

We've also held discussions with the Mental Health Foundation and Northern DHB Support Agency on working together to form an Auckland service user leadership group. While still in the early stages, the purpose of this group is support, sharing information, working collaboratively on service user development and growing future leaders.

Consumer advisor training has also begun through Blueprint Centre for Learning. We will report on the value of this training programme in the very near future.

The links for service user work across Te Pou continue to grow with the establishment of new positions in Le Va, Research and Information as well as the already established leadership role in Workforce. Te Pou continues to work with other service user leaders in this work - because to effect change other organisations will also need to resource service user workforce development at a national, regional and local level. Te Pou will collaborate with others via our strategy work and leadership models for service user workforce development to achieve this.

Project manager

Carolyn Swanson, service user workforce development manager.

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Page last updated: 23 February 2010