National Support Work Summit, March 2009
The National Support Work Summit, held in Wellington in March 2009, provided the opportunity for some 130 support workers, sector leaders, ITO’s and education providers to participate in a number of workshops and create discussion about the workforce opportunities and challenges for the role of support work in Aotearoa.
Group workshops held on day one explored the type of information mechanisms that could be established to keep support workers connected, informed and be an accessible workforce group. A national website, Aotearoa Mental Health and Addiction Support Workers, was established during the summit and many attendees took the opportunity to join up.
The website is now available for any mental health and addiction support worker to join, and be part of a national movement.
Over 40 topics were held as conversations through open space technology on day two. Harrison Owen, and summit attendees, identified the following key themes to inform future workforce development:
- training development and supervision
- national body for support workers
- registration for the role of support work
- pay and recognition
- service access and development.
All workshop information collected from the summit can now be found on the national website for mental health and addiction support workers.
For further enquiries about the 2009 summit please contact David Bradley.
Page last updated: 11 March 2010