Alignment to other competencies and frameworks

The development of Let’s get real and the seven Real Skills drew on all of the current and emerging competency frameworks for mental health and addiction services in New Zealand. These include the:

• Recovery Competencies for New Zealand Mental Health Workers (Mental Health Commission 2001)
• competencies developed for professionals regulated by the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003
• Social Work Registration Act 2003
• Te Ao Maramatanga (New Zealand College of Mental Health Nurses) standards of practice for mental health nursing
• mental health frameworks for particular professional groups
• Drug and Alcohol Practitioners Association Aotearoa–New Zealand practitioner competencies for alcohol and other drug workers
• Midland Region Mental Health Network’s common capabilities project. 

In addition, Te Rau Matatini and Matua Raki drew on their involvement in, and knowledge of, developing Māori competency frameworks to develop what was initially known as the focusing on Māori Real Skill and is now called the working with Māori Real Skill.

The Ministry of Health has mandated Let’s get real and the seven Real Skills as the foundation framework to support the delivery of mental health and addiction services.

Let’s get real implementation will align with a range of national initiatives, including the following.

• Te Pou's Skills Matter programme. The primary function of Skills Matter is to fund education providers to deliver mental health and addiction postgraduate clinical training for people new to mental health.  These programmes will all support Let’s get real implementation.
• The National Training Plan: this plan sets out the training and development opportunities that support Let’s get real in practice.
• Real Skills plus series: the Real Skills of Let’s get real are complemented by specialist skill sets, known as the Real Skills plus series, which are aimed at people working in specialist areas. These skill sets are part of the overarching mental health and addiction competency framework.
  • Real Skills plus Seitapu – aims to infuse Pasifika throughout the mental health and addiction sector, with competencies for anyone working with Pacific peoples. A learning module will also be available. These were developed by Le Va, Pasifika workforce development within Te Pou (2009).
  • Real Skills plus CAMHS – infant, child and youth mental health and addiction sector competencies aimed at practitioners working in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). These have been developed by The Werry Centre (2008) and can be downloaded here.
• Other specialist competency frameworks aimed at people working in specific areas of mental health and addiction. Some were in existence before Let’s get real, while others are at different stages of development. Let’s get real sits as a foundational framework for the specialist competencies, as it is intended for all people working in mental health and addiction services. Specialist competency frameworks include those:
  • for alcohol and other drug practitioners (developed by the Drug and Alcohol Practitioners Association of Aotearoa–New Zealand (DAPAANZ))
  • for Kaupapa Māori services, for example Takarangi
  • for mental health services for older people (being developed by the Northern District Health Board Support Agency, on behalf of the northern region district health boards).

Given that Let’s get real is a national framework, the alignment with other mandated national frameworks is important. However, several other frameworks are either already in use, or are being developed, and it is important these frameworks also align with Let’s get real. 

Page last updated: 30 November 2009