Personal Assistant

Kia ora,

I am wanting to employ a personal assistant to help me establish The Wellington Depression Recovery Centre. I am part of a team of volunteers building the Centre and while I have the support of many experienced people and firms, a lot of work on many fronts is required to build the Centre. A personal assistant who can support me and to whom I can delegate would be a great help.

I have listed it as 30 hours per week but I am also open to people who have fewer available hours and employing more than one person. This way people could take on specific tasks eg fundraising, rather than help me across many tasks. Basically, if you have the skills and interest but don't fit into the specs below I would still be keen to hear from you.

**My personal background**I have experienced depression, written a book (Out of the Woods) to help people understand depression and advocated for better mental health treatment options. Before this I worked as a community lawyer (originally at the Wellington Community Law Centre) and made resources (books, videos and set up programmes) in the social justice area.

Below is an outline of the project.

**Project Outline**:The Depression Recovery Trust is setting up an innovative mental health initiative, initially in Wellington, called the ‘Wellington Depression Recovery Centre’. It will be a 6 weeks therapeutic day programme (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm) for adults who are experiencing moderate to severe depression and/or anxiety/PTSD/personality disorders. It will serve approximately 40 adults at any one time and more than 300 people annually.

It will provide a range of evidence-based treatments and support including: psychiatric care, small group psychotherapy; peer support; whānau support; cultural support; social work support; art therapy; exercise; psychoeducation; skills training; and occupational therapy. These services will be delivered within a safe supportive therapeutic environment that treats all people and their whānau with respect and compassion. Before the programme starts there will be an assessment phase; following the programme, ongoing support groups.

Participants will fall into the higher end of what the Government calls the ‘missing middle’ - people who do not meet the criteria for entry into Mental Health secondary care services, yet need more support than is currently available through primary and community health care services. The service will fill a gap in the continum of mental health services in the Wellington Region. The Centre will work collaboratively with other mental health organisations, social services and Iwi health providers.

The treatment model will be an integrative, recovery-oriented evidence-based one, guided on the holistic Te Whare Tapa Wha model that acknowledges the interdependence of good mental health on good physical, spiritual, cultural, whānau and social health. The assessment phase will be holistic and consider a client’s ecological context.

The Centre’s programme will empower people in their lives and help them restore and strengthen their wellbeing. Specifically, the programme will aim to help participants:

- gain hope
- reduce their risk of mental health related deaths/harm
- achieve symptom remission
- improve their physical and mental functioning
- build stronger connections with their whānau, culture and community
- become more stable and functional in their home and work lives
- develop a healthy sense of identity
- develop a greater sense of existential meaning
- acquire health supporting behaviours and attitudes
- gain awareness and skills that will be protective against relapse

The initiative is born out of personal lived experience and has been co-designed with a team of experienced Wellington-based mental health professionals. As a tāngata whai ora-informed initiative, it is a service that understands the challenges people face when they are depressed and the steps they have to go through to recover. The programme will promote inclusion and belonging as well as challenge stigma.

The Centre is the first of its kind in New Zealand. It offers an excellent opportunity to provide a cost effective treatment option for people who are unable to work, or to live fully, because of their disability. The Centre’s short term, intense and highly supportive programme will help participants develop functionality more quickly than current mono treatments. It will provide them with a broad range of skills and self-awareness that will be protective against relapse and help them build long term resilience.