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January 2005 - Tracey Napa
Kiaora,
A happy New Year to everyone, and I hope you all enjoyed the festive holiday season. I've only been back at work from my annual leave for two weeks and it's already been an exciting time for the Deaf Mental Health Service. We have a new manager here, Cheryl Anton who is a remarkably bright and experienced woman, Deaf herself, doing an excellent job of leading the team. Also we have a Deaf trainee Psychiatric nurse student from England who is keen to learn all about how our service operates and I have been giving her all the available information about our service I can access to help maximize her learning experience. Soon the service will benefit for another part time Deaf Mental health Support worker, Karla. So it is brilliant we have more Deaf staff working for the Deaf clients here.
As I have only been here for month, I have not as much as usual to report. I was pleased to arrive back and reap the rewards of all my persistent email and overseas liaising, to do with requests for various subtitled videos, e.g. one about the signs and symptoms of "Depression" from Australia, and a series of mental health issue videos form the Netherlands, about divorce and the grief process called "Death and Mourning". Of course it is ideal to draw on the international resources available, so this facet of my work has proven to be a worthwhile contribution towards the information for the clients, and as supplementary learning tools to aid the DMHS support staff in their work helping to foster greater self- awareness in clients of their mental health and wellbeing. Clients will be able to access the insights offered in these subtitled videos- and many more than I can mention here from Deaf Mental health Services in England- throughout the future long after I have gone.
I've perfected the Needs Assessment form that helps to set goals, recognise strengths and weaknesses and identify areas to be developed over a long-term personal continuum of personal empowerment. It looks so much more appealing for the clients to have a more visual form to work with, as the pictures I have added look quite aesthetically effective, including our Welcome Pack for new clients.
Well, I feel assured that my efforts throughout the year can be of significant benefit to the clients of this specialist mental health support service. At the Open Day celebration I got some wonderful feedback from the people whom this service supports and their whanua in response to the extensive range of resources developed. This interest generated is the most rewarding reinforcement of just how effective my work has been. I feel confident that in my role I've helped in terms of building a comprehensive range of resources that inspire clients to move ahead with their own personal growth to access therapeutic community services, vocational skills development etc that nurture their strengths.
The last year just flew by, and it has been a marvelous cause to dedicate my year to. Wow does time fly when you're passionately busy in your vocational endeavors! I'd like to extend an enormous thanks to Vodafone NZ Foundation for enabling this all to happen. Huge gratitude to Jillian Donnachie and co, whose support and faith in me has been marvelous.
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