Talking therapies
Service users, families and clinicians have called for greater access to evidence-based 'talking therapies' across the mental health and addiction sector. The call is for therapies that are high quality and accessible in a more consistent way across mental health and addiction services in New Zealand.
The aim of Te Pou's work in this area is to explore which therapies are currently used and what might enhance their basic quality, sustainability and spread across New Zealand. Our work is guided by the key documents We Need to Act and the Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011.
On this page:
- What we are doing
- Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011
- We Need to Act
- We Need to Talk
- Further information
What we are doing
Scott Miller workshop
Te Pou hosted another workshop by Dr Scott Miller from Chicago on 17-18 March 2010 at the Latimer Hotel in Christchurch. Feedback from the two days was very positive and a survey will be sent to participants in three months to see what changes clinicians have made to their practice.
Scott Miller consults internationally, helping organisations to achieve better outcomes in behavioural health care. Scott is the director of the International Center for Clinical Excellence, an online community of clinicians, researchers and educators that facilitates sharing of best practices and innovative ideas to improve behavioural health care.
A Guide to Talking Therapies in New Zealand
In 2009 Te Pou published A Guide to Talking Therapies in New Zealand, a user-friendly guide to talking therapies for service users and family members. We worked with the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) to produce the guide, which aims to clearly describe each therapy, what mental health issues it is best used for, and how people can access it.
Best and promising practice guidelines for specific population groups
Te Pou is now producing a series of guides that intend to better inform staff working therapeutically with specific population groups about the processes of engagement and therapies that are particularly appropriate.
Published guides include:
- Talking Therapies for Asian People (July 2010)
- Talking Therapies for Older Adults (June 2010)
- Talking Therapies for Pasifika Peoples (June 2010).
Refugees as Survivors New Zealand (RASNZ) has been engaged to produce a guide for working with refugee, asylum seeker and new migrant communities, scheduled for release in September 2010.
Moe Milne is leading the production of a guide for working with Maori. This has a particular focus on what processes assist in engagement with tangata whaiora and whanau. This guide is scheduled for release in September 2010.
Te Pou is also collaborating with Matua Raki to produce a guide for delivering talking therapies to people with addiction problems, scheduled for release in November 2010.
Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011
Te Pou is leading this work which aims to enhance access to talking therapies for people who use mental health and addiction services. This three year plan, published in January 2009, outlines the high level actions that will be undertaken with service users being the focal point, and the recovery approach underpinning all actions. The plan follows on from (and is based on) the format of Te Kokiri.
This work was undertaken in response to:
- calls from service users for better access to quality talking therapies across mental health and addiction services
- an identified need for a more coordinated, strategic approach to enhancing talking therapies.
This work will build on and strengthen existing workforce development processes and assist in the strategic funding and purchasing of training primarily for adults. It will complement existing Te Pou activities in its Information and Research programmes.
The action plan is available for download in PDF format below.
Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011 PDF (592kb)
Three key points to note about the action plan.
- It describes a framework which depicts where talking therapies fit within services, staff and existing work.
- It focuses on practical pieces of work that will help to build on what is already occurring in services in order to lay strong foundations for future talking therapies activities.
- The large background document which formed the basis for the action plan is called We Need to Act.
We Need to Act
We Need to Act is a background document, published in January 2009, which underpins the Action Plan for Talking Therapies 2008-2011.
This document summarises more formal feedback from the sector, describes the proposed talking therapies framework and gives explanation as to why particular actions were chosen.
We Need to Act is available for download in PDF format below.
We Need to Act PDF (1.1mb)
We Need to Talk
We Need to Talk is a discussion document which was written and published in July 2007 in order to get sectorial feedback. This report provides a description of the talking therapies that might be most effectively enhanced in order to improve outcomes for people who use mental health and addiction services, and provides some initial ideas for ways that accessibility, consistency and quality might be enhanced.
A summary of feedback on the report, titled We Now Need to Listen, is also available.
As part of our talking therapies work a literature review was put out to tender. The successful agency was the New Zealand Guidelines Group.
These three documents are available for download in PDF format below.
We Need to Talk PDF (276kb)
We Now Need To Listen PDF (109kb)
Further information
For more information please contact Emma Skellern, researcher/project coordinator.
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Page last updated: 24 August 2010