Source: Radio New Zealand
Mental health minister Matt Doocey. RNZ / Mark Papalii
The South Island’s first crisis recovery café has opened in Christchurch.
The government is providing funding to bring the total number of cafés around the country from six to eight.
Opening the Christchurch site on Colombo Street, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said the cafés gave people experiencing mental distress an option to go to a calm, peer-led, non-clinical space for support, instead of having to go to an emergency department.
“We know wraparound support is so important, having someone who can help refer people on to long-term support can make a real difference and help people feel less overwhelmed when seeking support.”
People would not need a referral, and would be connected with community services and wraparound support.
The Christchurch café will be run by providers Purapura Whetu, Odyssey House Trust, and Stepping Stone Trust, and will officially start accepting clients next month.
Around 100 locals who had experience of mental health services themselves had provided input into the design of the café.
“That means a lot,” Doocey said. “What we want to do is to make sure when we think about local needs, they are serviced well. And that’s what services like this provide.”
Project operations manager Maree Hansen from Purapura Whetu said the site would be staffed by people who have also been through something similar.
“You can actually talk with others and say, ‘Hey, this helped me when I was feeling like this and this might help you.’ You can’t learn that out of a book. You have to experience that.”
Hansen expected the site would be busy. Doocey said an existing cafe in Wellington was seeing up to 300 people a fortnight.
“That’s a real difference. Quite often, they’re people who could potentially be going to an emergency department. It takes real pressure off them as well and ultimately gives people choice.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
