Happy new year everyone. Te Pou offices are now open for 2021.
Happy new year everyone. Te Pou offices are now open for 2021.
The International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) and the International Initiative for Disability Leadership (IIDL) are international learning collaboratives for mental health, addiction and disability leaders.
IIMHL and IIDL help leaders connect, share knowledge, and apply innovations to improve services. IIMHL and IIDL are government-funded initiatives.
For IIMHL please contact Janet Peters, the IIMHL liaison for New Zealand.
Nine countries participate in IIMHL: New Zealand, USA, England, Scotland, Republic of Ireland, Canada, Sweden, The Netherlands and Australia.
New Zealand is a founding member of IIMHL. Te Pou funds a staff member to work on planning, liaison and evaluation for IIMHL.
The 2019 Leadership Exchange was held September 9-13. Matches were held across the US and Canada, with the Network Meeting held in Washington D.C. The theme of the exchange was “Leading the way forward: Access, Accountability & Action”.
See the Network meeting agenda and match topics.
New Zealand was allocated 30 places at the Exchange. A key issue was to ensure members of the New Zealand delegation were equipped and ideally placed to implement recommendations from He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction.
Learning from the IIMHL New Zealand leaders who attended the 2019 Exchange are available below in the Stories section.
Summaries of the IIMHL 2019 matches are available on the IIMHL website.
[Postponed] 2020 After very careful consideration, it's been decided that the next Leadership Exchange that was to be held in New Zealand and Australia during the week of March 1, 2021 will be postponed to the week of February 28, 2022. Our major concern has been to ensure the safety and health of our staff and members as well as the challenges relating to international travel resulting from COVID-19. From the information available to us at present it appears that travel restrictions might still cause an issue for next March. While we have been following the potential travel issues, we have also focused attention on the new Christchurch convention centre build, the venue for the Network Meeting. Before COVID-19 arrived in New Zealand, the construction schedule was on track for completion in November 2020, well in time for our March 2021 event. During the lockdown, construction stopped and has only just resumed, with a firm date to be open in May 2021. In light of this, we have made the difficult decision to postpone and have now locked in the week of February 28 to March 4, 2022 for the Christchurch Leadership Exchange.
Please see our FAQs for the 2022 Leadership Exchange by clicking here.
[Cancelled] 2020 There were two regional Leadership Exchanges scheduled for 2020; one in Australasia and one in Scotland. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, both have been cancelled.
There is no cost to join IIMHL or IIDL.
You can join if you are employed in a leadership role and you are endorsed by your employer or sponsoring organisation, or if you are acknowledged by the sector as having leadership responsibilities. Leadership roles can range from CEO through to Māori leaders, Pacific leaders, clinicians or consumers or family members who work in advocacy roles with leadership responsibilities in services.
28 February - 4 March 2022
The Leadership Exchange will be held in February and March 2022, with matches across Australia and New Zealand. The Network Meeting will be held in Christchurch at Te Pae Conference Centre.16 March 2021
This Leadership event is about celebrating leadership – hearing from others who have made courageous and bold decisions in times of change and uncertainty.26 May 2020
Professor Anil Thapliyal, Executive Director, eMental Health International Collaborative reports back on the success of this match in September 2019.25 May 2020
Richard Woodcock, Te Pou National Manager for Data, Information and Research notes that IIMHL initiated a project in 2008 with an aim of developing a consensus framework for mental health quality and performance indicators. The work has continued through to 2019 and over 20 publications have explored the performance schemes used and the opportunities for standardising approaches to performance and quality measurement across a range of countries.7 May 2020
Dr Peri Renison and Toni Gutschlag from Christchurch report from the I-CIRCLE match in Toronto in 2019.17 March 2020
Colonel Clare Bennett, Chief Mental Health Officer, Defence Health Directorate & Director Integrated Wellness of the New Zealand Defence Force, reports on the Military Issues Work Group match held in 2019.17 March 2020
Dr Bronwyn Dunnachie, senior advisor - Werry Workforce Whāraurau, and Sue Dashfield, director - Werry Workforce Whāraurau, attended the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) Child and Youth match in New Haven, Connecticut, USA as part of the 2019 IIMHL Leadership Exchange.14 February 2020
Mary O’Hagan, programme lead – Like Minds, Like Mine, shares her reflections and experience from the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) international exchange, where she learned more about the work done by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) to reduce stigma and discrimination.12 February 2020
Kerri Butler shares some notes and reflections from the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership (IIMHL) kaupapa in Washington DC, United States about indigenous programmes and leadership around the world.17 December 2019
Shaun Robinson reflects on a two-day learning-intensive held in Toronto, Canada run by the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.6 December 2019
Dr Janice Wilson, Robyn Shearer and Marion Blake attended an exchange hosted by the American Psychological Association.14 November 2019
Rob Warriner of Walsh Trust attended the IIMHL Leadership Exchange 2019 and learned about a Tennessee medical centre and primary health service which takes an integrated approach to service provision.17 October 2019
At the IIMHL Leadership Exchange in Washington DC, the second Crisis Now Global Summit on urgent and emergency mental health care was held. Janet Peters, New Zealand Liaison for IIMHL and Samantha Allen, CEO of Sussex Partnership NHS Trust reflect on some key lessons from the match.6 December 2018
During the IIMHL Leadership Exchange, the first meeting of the IIMHL Council of Public Mental Health Leadership took place, attended by representatives from eleven countries. Two people from each IIMHL country were invited. Dr Barbara Disley and Dr Monique Faleafa represented New Zealand.5 November 2018
A two-day leadership exchange on cross-sectoral policies for suicide prevention was hosted by the Public Health Agency of Sweden and the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the United States at IIMHL and IIDL 2018. Dr Monique Faleafa and Denise Kingi-Uluave of Le Va and Dr Barbara Disley of Emerge Aotearoa attended the match.9 October 2018
Tomas Bokström and Dr David McDaid led an inspiring leadership match at IIMHL and IIDL on the way economic modelling, inter-sectoral outcomes and operational models for financing can drive investment and resource allocation for better mental health outcomes. Karla Bergquist reflects.14 September 2018
At IIMHL and IIDL 2018, The Mental Health Foundation (Scotland) and The Scottish ACEs Hub hosted an inspiring leadership match: Transforming public mental health and wellbeing with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) related innovation. Denise Aylward of Pathways reflects.14 August 2018
At the IIMHL and IIDL Leadership Exchange, Ian McKenzie and Dr Murray Patton took a look at research demonstrating Iceland has had significant success in decreasing addiction issues.17 July 2018
This year Werry Workforce Whāraurau participated in the organisation of the IIMHL Child and Youth Match, and the facilitation of a workshop in the network meeting of the 2018 IIMHL Leadership Exchange.19 June 2018
Rob Warriner, chief executive of Walsh Trust writes of his IIMHL experience learning about a new model of crisis mental health care in Glasgow, Scotland.Choose which list to add this to, or create a new one!