For the past 34 years, the Mental Health Foundation has been working to improve the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. Over the years, you will have all seen various campaigns on television, in magazines, on posters and in pamphlet holders at your local doctor’s. But over time, the foundation has learned that these traditional forms of communication don’t work for everyone.


Just recently, express had the pleasure of attending the preview of New Zealand gay short film The Colonel’s Outing, which was sponsored by the Mental Health Foundation. Mental Health Foundation’s Judi Clements says the foundation simply has to be more savvy these days than it was in 1977.


“Sponsoring a film is a contemporary idea; much more contemporary than posters or leaflets,” says Judi. “There are plenty of people who don’t want to pick up leaflets. I think the arts are a really good way of reaching people with messages – they reach people when they’re much more open to thinking and imagining; they’re not just being told to listen to a message, which is what posters and leaflets can feel like to some people. 


“The arts has the ability to make people open up or shift their perceptions. So with that in mind, we’ve supported dramatic productions, sculpture exhibitions, painting exhibitions, books, poetry and poetry anthologies; it’s really been a great initiative and one I’d like to grow.


“One idea we’ve tabled is the idea of a book award, for the best book to support the awareness of mental health issues. Where I came from in the UK we had a Mind Book of the Year. Its success was centred around the idea that you can reach different people through different mediums and with different tactics.”


The Mental Health Foundation gets funding straight from the ministry of health – Judy jokes that the foundation is given funding “to essentially promote fairness”, but it’s an accurate summary. 


“We work with the ministry of health through a contractual relationship – they contract us to do a range of different but connected services,” she says. “We run a resource information service and we run an information line. We also like to give things away to people so that money isn’t a barrier to getting information. They fund us to work on the Like Minds, Like Mine campaign, which promotes social inclusion and fairness. 


“We also do a lot of work towards suicide prevention – we collect information around the best practices that help prevent suicide, then we disseminate that information.

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The ministry of health isn’t the only organisation that helps out the foundation – each year the Movember campaign gives half of all monies raised in New Zealand to mental health; the other half goes to the Cancer Society. 


“Having the support of Movember is huge for us,” says Judi. “With the monies raised each year we’ve been able to support the creation of The Nutters Club – a Radio Live show hosted by Mike King that seeks to educate people about mental illness.”


Judi also says the immense amount of work done by the foundation could not be possible without its partners. “The foundation promotes what we all need to maintain positive health and wellbeing. Sometimes we can do that by partnering up with other organisations – we can’t be everything to everyone. We would like to be, but we have to be realistic.”


Recently some Mental Health Foundation staff have been everything to everyone – we’re talking about the foundation’s Christchurch team, all of whom came away from the 22 January earthquake unscathed but ready to go and help others.


“Our Christchurch staff has continued to work to get messages of hope out to their communities, but they have also engaged in a lot of practical work, as well,” says Judi. “They’re looking out for each other and creating things that are good for each other. It’s both grim and awful and wonderful and supportive, all at the same time.”


This theme of sadness and hope runs through the Like Minds, Like Mine campaign that the foundation shows all over the country; most notably, on our television screens. The campaign features real New Zealanders who have struggled through the depths of depression and come out the other side all the better for it.


“The goal of the campaign is to show that depression can happen to anyone,” says Judi. “It also shows the importance of family and friends when you are going through tough times. The campaign urges people to stay involved and help those with mental illness.


“If you have a friend or family member who is suffering from mental illness – perhaps they’ve just been dealt the label by a doctor or other professional – the best thing you can do for them is to talk. If you need to find out more about their condition, you can call us or come into one of our branches; we have an open door policy.


“Also remember that people living with mental illness need to be heard. The feeling of not being heard is common among many people with mental illness, so make sure you listen to them, hear their stories right through and don’t jump to conclusions.


“The worst thing you can do is ignore a problem. If you don’t ask someone what it’s like to be them, you will never have an understanding of how you can help.”


When it comes to the GLBT community, Judi says the statistics don’t lie – sadly, there is a much higher instance of depression in the gay community and an even higher instance of it in the trans community. 


“What we know about this higher instance is that it’s got a lot to do with feeling excluded, not accepted and not feeling like you can be true to your identity,” says Judi. “It’s an identity issue as much as your gender or ethnicity. Intolerance is the enemy of social inclusion. People want to be true to themselves without feeling judged, frowned upon, disapproved of or condemned.

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To speak to the gay community, the foundation is in the process of making a series of videos about being gay and about the experiences of gay men and suicide. Mental Health Foundation staffer Chris Banks has been helping with this project, which he says will be expanded to include other parts of the GLBT community in time, but for now, Judi says the set of videos will speak to gay men in particular.


If this initiative, or one of the myriad other ways the foundation speaks to New Zealand, strikes a chord with you, get in touch with the foundation.


“What we say to people who think they might need help is to call us, come in or send us an email,” says Judi. “We have so much information available here and make sure that all materials are available free of charge. We don’t refer or recommend but we can give information on where you can go to get further help. If someone is in crisis, we will refer you to a crisis line.”


If you or someone you know needs help with mental health issues, contact the Mental Health Foundation through its website, 
www.mentalhealth.org.nz.