Mountain Scene
By PHILIP CHANDLER
Queenstown’s Filipino and Brazilian communities and new and expectant parents have
been the first to go through free mental health education work shops, which could be rolled
out nationally.
Southern Wellbeing Trust’s partnering with the national Good Programmes Trust to adapt its ‘GoodYarn’ programme to suit the diverse Whakatipu community.
Using seed funding from various organisations and funds, the southern trust’s been training community-based facilitators to deliver the workshops since December.
They’re being supported by a clinical team, including a GP and a mental health counsellor.
Southern Wellbeing Trust co-founder Anna Dorsey says the workshops help people talk openly about mental health and wellbeing, learn how to recognise symptoms of mental illness and support people experiencing mental distress to access help.