Profile: Leigh Murray

For the last three years I have been working for ADHB mental health services as their family advisor. Prior to that I worked for Supporting Families In Mental Illness providing support, information and advocacy to family and whanau graduating in 2007 from AUT with a BHSc in applied mental health.

As family advisor it is my job to reflect and communicate the needs, interests and rights of families by providing and facilitating a family and whanau perspective in planning, policy, service development and monitoring at a senior management level.

I work in partnership with DHB managers, staff and consumer advisors to get this happening along with the many family and whanau members who contribute to service improvement through providing feedback in surveys, interviews and as members of the ADHB/SF family steering group. Part of my role is also to provide education and training to staff around how to work and engage effectively with families and whanau which is why I am really enthusiastic about Let's get real and the resources it provides through the Te Pou website to support training of staff in this area.

There are many things I love about my job. I am a people person so I really enjoy the contact I have with staff right from the top management level to staff who are at the coalface level of service delivery. I believe that every role is important in creating an effective recovery focused mental health service and I really like the fact that Let's get real training is inclusive of all staff and includes all disciplines and roles including receptionists. There is a strong emphasis on the values and attitudes that staff need to work in mental health and, as a family member who has been involved with many mental health services over the years, I would say ‘how’ a service is delivered is often as crucial as ‘if’ a service is delivered.

I think the most important thing for families and whanau to know, is just how valuable their support, aroha and hope can be in the recovery of the person they care about and to not think of themselves as ‘just the family’. For most people having a life worth living involves quality, mutually satisfying time spent with family and friends including children. In a recent paper from the Mental Health Commission (Aug 2009) a UK framework for measuring social inclusion ranked family and friends as the most important life domain for service users, mental health professionals and members of the public.

The role of the family advisor in NZ exists to ensure that the important role of family and whanau is recognised and supported in a service user’s recovery journey through mental health service delivery.

Leigh Murray

Page last updated: 26 November 2009