National Support Work Summit 2007

National Support Work Summit

 

   

Approximately 135 attendees from Whangarei to Invercargill representing community organisations, District Health Boards, families, Maori, Pacific and peer support services came to Wellington to participate in the 2007 National Support Work Summit.

The intention of the summit was to focus entirely around the issues that were important to support work. The summit was a participatory process involving the best of the evaluation summit technique and open space technology. A team of people involved in support work from around the country were initially trained as action researchers to go back into their areas and collect stories which then became the 60 Most Significant Change Interviews. The interviews captured the essence of the difference that support work and support workers make every day.

Key Provocative Questions were raised at the summit

  • What would happen if funding for mental health support work was dropped in favour of other models of service delivery?
  • What if the money went with the person, not the service?
  • How do you attract the younger generation to consider work in the mental health sector, knowing that the average age is 44.6 years?
  • Can peer support and mental health support workers work collaboratively?
  • What is a career pathway and who should develop it?
 NgOit Workforce Survey BannersPoster highlights of various statistical information gathered from respondents to the NgOIT 2007 Workforce Survey
Day One
Participants used the stories as a basis for identifying the key outcomes of support work, the critical challenges and significant areas for improvement to move support work forward.		 Support work summit attendees
   

Day Two - Book of Proceedings
Was about action planning for the future, and the key areas identified by the participants were:

  • Professionalisation
  • Looking at qualifications
  • CSW being part of an interdisciplinary team
  • Training and professional development
  • Whanau empowerment

Feedback from participants was very positive and enthusiasm for a further conference was evident.

"It was a brilliant summit and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. Well done to you and your team!"

"I found attendance a learning experience especially in noticing the huge workforce in the NGO sector involved with adults and youth and the few that are involved with families as the primary carer of children with mental health issues."

"Congratulations regarding the summit."

 
  "Just wanted to thank and congratulate you guys for organizing such a fantastic summit- it really was great to attend a summit that was all about what we thought as a workforce rather than being told what we should be doing by the brilliant minds above us! Don’t know what will follow but I certainly left feeling like I had an opportunity to contribute, as I’m sure everybody else did, and I really feel some momentum has been created….. When’s the next one!!??"