Leadership
Te Pou believes New Zealand can lead the world in mental health and addiction innovations and expertise, through inspirational ideas and action.
Leadership includes empowering, leading through service and leading by example. We know that if Te Pou is to continue to lead transformation across the sector, the ability to transform starts with us. For this reason, we run a programme of continual improvement not only for the sector but for ourselves – as an organisation, as a partner to government and the sector, and as individuals.
International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership
The International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) is a government to government funded initiative, which has seven member countries. New Zealand is one of the three founding member countries. Te Pou funds a staff member to work on planning, liaison and evaluation for IIMHL.
The aim of IIMHL is to coordinate learning exchanges between mental health and addiction leaders from member countries. The exchanges assist in reforming services by comparing best practice and innovations.
Key priority areas affecting all countries include funding practices, developing primary mental health, reducing seclusion in inpatient units, indigenous best practice and gathering together an evidence and research base for leadership in mental health.
More recently the disability sector has joined this agency and has its own parallel organisation - the International Initiative for Disability Leadership (IIDL).
Did you know?
There are seven participating countries in the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) – USA, England, New Zealand, Scotland, republic of Ireland, Canada and Australia.
There are more than 2,000 people listed in the IIMHL database, representing 15 countries and 1,000 mental health agencies.
IIMHL and IIDL 2013
In 2013 the IIMHL leadership exchange will be held across Australia and New Zealand from 4-8 March. IIDL will be part of this process.
Any leader in mental health, addiction and disability services can join for free by registering on the IIMHL website. In New Zealand a leader is defined as a person in a leadership role endorsed by their employer or sponsoring organisation or having an association with the sector by virtue of their acknowledged leadership responsibilities. This can range from a CEO of an organisation through to a consumer or family member who works nationally or regionally in an advocacy role with leadership responsibilities in either mental health, addiction or disability services.
All seven countries agreed the theme Innovation across the lifespan: What does it take to make an impact? Using this aim as the ‘umbrella’ a matrix of key topic areas was used to plan the exchanges. Host sites will use this framework as a guide for their two-day matches where visitors observe best practice examples of service delivery and innovation.
The Leadership Exchange comprises two parts.
- 4-5 March: A two-day “match” or learning intensive whereby people focus on a specific innovation or best practice (e.g. child and youth mental health) in various hosts locations throughout New Zealand and Australia.
- 7-8 March: A two-day Network Meeting in which experiences from the matches are shared and international speakers describe innovation and service improvement methods relevant to the participants.
The aim is to provide a vibrant learning experience which will result in better outcomes for consumers.
In New Zealand an expression of interest process was used to select IIMHL host sites. The IIMHL website www.iimhl.com is the portal where New Zealand host sites are available for leaders to choose from. A range of host sites from mental health, addiction and disability are available in various parts of New Zealand and Australia.
Please note that only people who attend a match are able to attend the Network Meeting. This is so that people who participate in a match get a further opportunity to share information and strengthen relationships and links with international agencies and colleagues.
The IIDL host sites are also available and are accessible via the IIMHL website. Australian host sites are available under the IIMHL umbrella.
Registering for a Leadership Exchange
To participate in the Leadership Exchange, you must be a member of IIMHL, have a completed registration for the event and have self-selected a match from the website. The three steps to attending an exchange must be done in this order:
- complete a membership record
- register for the Leadership Exchange
- select a match.
When booking for these exchanges, each leader meets the cost of their own travel and accommodation. Registrations opened in mid-August 2012 and already exceed 310 people from across the seven countries!
Please note: As of 18 February 2013 we have only a handful of places left for IIMHL, and IIDL registrations have closed for 2013 (with a waiting list).
Contact Erin Geaney for more information: erin@iimhl.com.
Sponsorship for consumer leaders
Te Pou has offered sponsorship grants (contributing towards travel and accommodation costs) to 15 consumer leaders to attend the 2013 IIMHL Leadership Exchange at a total cost of approximately $12,000. The actual total will be announced once participants have formally agreed to the terms and conditions of their grants.
You may also be interested in…
- International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL)
- Leadership and management training
- Disability Workforce Development leadership and consumer leadership development grant funding
- Le Va Le Tautua emerging leaders programme.
