Profile: Neta Seuala
Fighting the prejudice
The prejudice mental health service users face from the public is the main driver behind Neta Seuala moving into social work within the mental health field.
“I found it unfair and unjust that people with a mental illness are discriminated against within their day to day lives and I wanted to do my bit to try and change the thinking around those that suffer from mental illness.”
Neta has just completed the first year of his degree in social work at Whitireia Community Polytechnic, while working as team coordinator for Wellink Trust, a mental health non government organisation providing services across the Wellington region, from Paraparaumu to the Hutt Valley.
He originally trained as a nurse, and then worked in mental health nursing for a number of years in New Zealand and Australia. On his return to New Zealand in 2008, he decided he wanted to work in a mental health organisation with a different approach. The peer run services of Wellink fitted the bill, says Neta.
“Wellink Trust provides a responsive recovery focused service for people with mental illness, working in partnership with other mental health clinical services around the Wellington region to provide help and hope to people who need us. I realise other services have consumer group participation but I really liked the full inclusiveness of the Wellink approach.”
It also runs a range of community based mental health support services, including peer run recovery services, Worklink (job seeking service) and Headspace, a crisis respite service for youth.
Neta coordinates Vaka Tangata, a Pacific group within Wellink Trust, made up solely of Pacific Island staff and service users. Vaka Tangata was set up to ensure full participation of Pacific Island people and guarantee Wellink’s service delivery requirements meet the cultural needs of Pacific Island people, explains Neta.
He says it is important that health care for Pacific Island people moves beyond clinics and into community and churches.
“And it should be delivered where possible by Pacific Island people. For example, when you have ethnic specific services targeting the needs of Samoans, and run by Samoans, there is actually a better deliver of health services because there is similar language, communication and understanding of cultural values and practices.”
He says many of the social work models and approaches, that are used to bring about change with groups and individuals, work really well with Pacific communities.
“The starting point for any effective intervention with Pacific Island people is engagement with a group or individual, their family and their surrounding environment.”
Helping develop Pacific services for Pacific Island people is an area that Neta is very passionate about and hopes to work in more intensively in the future.
But he also advocates for mainstream cultural competency and understanding, including that of spiritual needs and cultural beliefs; an approach Vaka Tangata also promotes.
"As a group with the support of our Pacific elders, we share our Pacific cultures with staff in Wellink Trust so we can learn from each other."
The decision to retrain as a social worker was based on three reasons.
He wanted to move away from the clinical mental health role of a nurse into more of a hands-on role.
“I like how social workers are involved from planning stages to the end and in the most practical of ways, whether accompanying people to appointments or finding accommodation.”
And he was strongly attracted to the human rights and social justice emphasis that underpins social work practice.
“Social work is a profession that fits with my beliefs of equal opportunities for all. The strength based approaches and models it follows assists people to make informed decisions without anyone taking over and making the decision for them; it leads to empowerment.”
Ma Lo’u fa’aaloalo lava, Soifua.
Page last updated: 13 November 2009