The Southern Wellbeing Trust has joined forces with the Good Programmes Trust, national provider of the award-winning, evidence-based mental health education programme ‘GoodYarn’, in a pilot programme which could be rolled out nationwide. 

The pilot is based around the GoodYarn mental health education workshop which helps people talk openly about mental health and wellbeing, learn how to recognise common signs and symptoms of mental illness, and support those experiencing mental distress to access help.

After seeing the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health and wellbeing of the Queenstown Lakes community, the Southern Wellbeing Trust saw an opportunity to adapt the GoodYarn workshops to support the local community, trust co-founder Anna Dorsey said.

The first workshops, held in Queenstown, have taken place for Filipino and Brazilian communities as well as new and expectant parents. 

Up next will be making the workshops more widely available across the Queenstown Lakes district, and the two trusts are working with the business community to co-design workshops specifically for small businesses.

“Ultimately this work will help people build stronger local support networks and increase our communities’ resilience by fostering a more caring and supportive culture,” Anna said.

The GoodYarn model is different to other mental health programmes in that it trains non-clinical people to deliver the programme to their colleagues or peers, which means the knowledge and support offered is more easily accessible to the audience and stays in the community in which it is delivered.      

Since 2014, hundreds of GoodYarn workshops have been delivered in rural communities and large workplaces across New Zealand and the programme has also recently been rolled out in a further 15 countries.

Anna said the pilot project is going some way to addressing a key finding of last November’s community-led mental health forum.

“There was a strong desire from the participants to see mental health education increased in our community, so by raising awareness of mental health we can help overcome barriers of stigma and culture and make it easier for people to support each other and seek help if they need it.”  

Details of upcoming workshops will be available on the Southern Wellbeing Trust’s website here.

PHOTO: Supplied