NGO workforce development
New Zealand has one of the largest mental health and addiction NGO sectors in the world, delivering a wide range of community based support services that account for one third of the total national mental health expenditure. Over 300 diverse mental health and addiction community organisations have developed services that are recovery focused, people centred, culturally responsive and are linked to reducing social inequalities to improve the overall health of people living with a mental illness and/or addiction.
The community workforce is one of the largest workforce groups in the sector and usually has the most contact with people that use services. It is currently estimated that over 50 different occupations are working in mental health and addiction support services across Aotearoa. The NgOIT 2007 Workforce Survey identified that 77 per cent of support workers had undergraduate certificates or diplomas, postgraduate qualifications or degrees and there were a number of registered health professionals employed in support services.
Future mental health and addiction service development will depend on robust workforce planning for the community workforce. The sector will need to choose the most useful tools, practices and developments to support the complexity and diversity of this workforce. Workforce development for the community sector is fundamental to the success of recovery focused, community based mental health and addiction services
On this page
Our achievements to date
Supporting People Supporting Change
Te Pou is committed to building a strong and enduring workforce to deliver mental health and addiction services.
To understand some of the sector's workforce development needs, Te Pou developed the workshops ‘Supporting People Supporting Change’. Eight workshops were held across Aotearoa from September to November 2009. Workshop participants came from 131 NGOs and represented over a third of the mental health and addiction community sector. The intention of the workshops was to provide an insight to the emerging workforce themes.
We will use the workshop findings to inform the NGO component of the Te Pou workforce programme for 2010 to 2012.
The following document provides an overview of the workshops and gives insight to the emerging themes for the mental health and addiction community workforce.
Supporting People Supporting Change PDF (1mb)
Community Support Services Specification
In March 2009 Te Pou held two meetings with mental health and addiction community providers in the Wellington region. The purpose of this engagement was to facilitate a process to re-develop the content and service design description of the Community Support Services Specification.
Healthcareers website
Te Pou worked in collaboration with Framework Trust and WALSH Trust to identify, interview and develop the profiles of two community support workers to be featured on the Healthcareers website www.healthcareers.org.nz, which was developed to promote health as a career option.
The profiles of Namrata Gulani and Rebecca Goldsmith target new graduates and school leavers.
Careerforce mental health advisory group
Te Pou hosted the first Careerforce mental health advisory group meeting in April 2009. The advisory group provides advice to Careerforce to inform the review of the mental health qualifications, and potential areas of future workforce development for the role of the mental health community support worker.
The advisory group includes representation from Te Rau Matatini, Matua Raki, Te Pou, Canterbury District Health Board, Ministry of Health, a consumer advisor, The Public Service Association, The Werry Centre and a family advisor.
The advisory group will meet every two months for a period of two years, which commenced in April 2009.
Check out the latest Careerforce news.
Guiding documents
The challenge for Te Pou has been to find ways to engage with the mental health and addiction community sector through the guidance of the following documents.
- Te Tahuhu: Improving Mental Health 2005-2015: The second New Zealand health and addiction plan, Ministry of Health, 2005.
- Te Kokiri: The mental health and addiction action plan 2006-2015, Ministry of Health, 2006.
- Tauawhitia te Wero - Embracing the Challenge: National mental health and addiction workforce development plan 2006-2009, Ministry of Health, 2005.
- Te Awhiti - National Mental Health and Addictions Workforce Development Plan for and in support of Non-Government Organisations 2006-2009, Ministry of Health, 2006.
- An Evaluation of the National Certificate in Mental Health (Mental Health Support Work), Case Consulting, 2003.
- Work in Practice, Platform, 2004.
- Health Practitioner Competence Assurance Act and the Disability, Mental Health and Addiction NGO Sector, Platform, 2005.
- NgOIT 2005 Landscape Survey, Te Pou, 2006.
- NgOIT 2007 Workforce Survey, Platform, 2007.
- NgOIT 2008 NGO-DHB Contracting Environment, Platform, 2008.
- Performance Story Report, Platform, 2008.
Further information
For more information please contact David Bradley, project lead NGO workforce development.
Sign up to our free e-bulletin for regular project updates.
Page last updated: 23 March 2010