Service user workforce development
People with experience of mental illness are a skilled, powerful, pervasive and openly identified part of the mental health workforce. However, there is still much work to be done towards enhancing the potential and value of this workforce.
Te Pou has a commitment to develop the national mental health and addiction workforce, including the service user workforce.
On this page
What we are doing
Te Pou has a service user workforce development manager, responsible for a number of projects in this area. The role has an important component providing service user advice, expertise and support to other Te Pou projects to ensure they are recovery-influenced, service user centred and, therefore, more likely to succeed. In addition, this role is a national service user 'champion' role, which requires close liaison with service managers, general managers, funding and planning managers, and those running national and international mental health initiatives to prepare the sector for, and promote, the service user workforce.
Key initiatives
- Te Pou is funding upcoming peer supervision and leadership training to help develop the service user workforce. Places are limited so get in quick! Applications close on 21 May 2010.
- On 20 April 2010 Te Pou released the Mental Health and Addiction Service Evaluator Workbook. This new resource was developed as part of the development of standardised recovery evaluation tools across mental health and addiction services.
- We are supporting the development of peer led recovery learning packages. This work is expected to be complete by December 2010.
- We have surveyed the service user/consumer/peer support mental health and addiction workforce to help us understand more about the capacity and capability of the workforce. The survey closed on 30 April 2010.
- The first meeting of the Sentinel Project was held in March 2010. Like Minds, Like Mine, the Auckland Regional Consumer Network and Te Pou have been working together to form a northern service user leadership group to support, share information and work collaboratively on service user development and growing future leaders.
- Te Pou has contracted Balance NZ to develop a website for the New Zealand Peer Support Network.
- Consumer advisor training was delivered by Blueprint in 2009. Analysis and evaluation is in progress and a report will be available soon. The consumer advisor resource kit is available for download.
- Te Pou hosts peer support forums and is working to create a common understanding of peer support work and its workforce.
- A series of Let's get real workshops is being developed, targeted at the service user workforce.
Find out more about the service user influence across Te Pou's work.
Who we're working with
Te Pou is one agency providing leadership in the service user workforce development area, and it must also work with others such as the Werry Centre (child and youth), Te Rau Matatini (Maori), Matua Raki (addictions), Mental Health Commission, Mental Health Foundation, Like Minds, Like Mine, DHBs and NGOs, who all have a role in developing the service user workforce.
To effect change other organisations will also need to resource service user workforce development at a national, regional and local level. We will continue to collaborate with other organisations through our strategy work and leadership models for service user workforce development to achieve this.
Further information
For more information please contact Carolyn Swanson, service user workforce development manager.
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Page last updated: 13 May 2010