Talking therapies guides
Everyone deserves services that are relevant and meaningful to them, reflecting their cultural backgrounds and unique perspectives. Mental health and addiction services are evolving to meet the needs of New Zealand’s changing demographics. Te Pou plays a key role in this area.
Meeting people’s specific needs
First we developed A Guide to Talking Therapies in New Zealand, a user-friendly resource for service users and family/whānau members. We worked with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists to clearly describe each talking therapy, what mental health issues each therapy is best used for and how people can access therapies.
In 2010, we developed a series of guides for mental health and addiction staff to support the growing diversity of people they work with. These guides focus on how to engage with people to form the vital therapeutic relationship, and how therapy can be adapted to meet people’s specific needs.
The talking therapies guides are for:
A talking therapies guide was also produced for people with problematic substance use.
The guides have been well received by the sector. An evaluation reported high sector uptake and strong impact. These guides are assisting practitioners to raise their awareness of the needs and perspectives of different population groups and enhance communication and practice.
Our work is guided by our key documents We Need to Act and the Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011.
Talking Therapies: Where to Next?
Published in May 2012, Talking Therapies: Where to Next? examines evidence from both New Zealand-based talking therapies and international research to help plan and implement talking therapies. The report aims to:
- inform planning for development of a national strategy for talking therapies
- identify potential implementation activities and useful tools that services can use to plan and develop workforce capability and capacity to improve the availability of talking therapies for service users.
Principles for Engagement
Principles for Engagement is a resource designed to support Let's get real Real Skills at essential level.
Engagement is the connection assisting therapeutic work between the service user and the worker and is critical in recovery, with service users, family/whānau and workers consistently emphasising its importance. This resource draws from extensive consultation with New Zealand practitioners, interviewed for the suite of talking therapies guides for different population groups.
Economic Value
In 2012 Te Pou published a report into the economic value of talking therapies, to show that talking therapies are likely to not only meet service users' needs and deliver clinical effectiveness, but also provide good value for the money they cost to provide.
Need help now?
www.beatingtheblues.co.nz
Beating the Blues is the most widely used and evidence-based online CBT treatment programme for depression and anxiety.
www.depression.org.nz
Information about depression, recovery and how to access personal support. Freephone 0800 111 757 from 8am to midnight, every day.
www.thelowdown.co.nz
Information about depression, recovery and how to access personal support for youth (14-24 years). Freetext 5626 from noon to midnight, every day.
