As a mental health and addiction support worker, you may work in various roles in a range of organisations. Using a person-centred approach, you will have a team of people you work alongside to meet clients' needs.
You may work in roles such as:
- mental health support worker
- addiction support worker
- addiction programme facilitator
- day programme facilitator
- community caregiver
- residential support worker
Common responsibilities
Support workers play a vital role in the healthcare system in New Zealand, providing care and assistance to people suffering from mental health and addiction issues. Key responsibilities of the role include:
- providing emotional support to tangata
- monitoring and providing intervention
- developing and implementing personal plans
- liaising with other professionals
- assisting tangata to navigate the mental health and addiction healthcare system
- providing education
- helping with financial planning
- daily living assistance
- assisting tangata in developing strategies for managing their own mental health
- facilitating therapy or support sessions
- advocating for tangata rights
- promoting community engagement
Let’s look more closely at each of these responsibilities. Click on each heading below.
- Being there to listen to the tangata, showing empathy and understanding, building confidence and providing validation when needed.
- Offering practical advice and direction to help the tangata make their own decisions.
- Helping the tangata uncover and identify their emotions and guide them on how to self-regulate them.
- Coaching and mentoring tangata to develop coping strategies for managing mental health or addiction issues.
- Making careful observations of tangata around mood, behaviour, and medication and stepping in to help when the tangata needs support.
- Taking action when the tangata’s health deteriorates or if they start to show patterns associated with addiction issues.
- Providing crisis support such as de-escalating dangerous, risky or emotionally heightened situations.
- Focusing on the health, safety and wellbeing of the tangata.
- Working with the tangata to understand their unique needs, goals and challenges and adding this information into a plan that aims for the tangata’s recovery.
- Identifying specific strategies, agreed-upon interventions, therapy sessions, and community-based recovery programmes and activities.
- Working with other professionals such as:
- psychologists
- nurses
- doctors
- specialist therapists
- community support facilitators
- other community health workers
- Explaining options for treatment and services, clarifying medication and medication recommendations.
- Accessing support services and resources, helping the tangata to make and access appointments and therapy sessions.
- Helping tangata and their whānau to understand specific conditions, symptoms, effects and behaviours and how these can be treated and managed.
- Offering advice on lifestyle changes such as nutrition, exercise and sleep.
- Helping tangata learn to communicate effectively with others about mental health and addiction issues.
- Assisting tangata with budgeting and managing their finances.
- Providing information on financial support that might be available.
- Supporting individuals in completing tasks related to washing, dressing, cooking and household chores.
- Accompanying your tangata to appointments.
- Showing them mindfulness and relaxation techniques and providing them with cognitive behavioural strategies.
- Helping them plan and set up daily routines in their personal lives to provide stability and certainty.
- Running group sessions to enable tangata to connect with others experiencing similar challenges.
- Facilitating exercises, group discussions and information sessions around mental health and addiction topics.
- Ensuring tangata can access the right services and resources, such as therapy, medication and housing.
- Stepping in to help tangata who are not being treated fairly or getting the necessary care.
- Educating people about tangata’s rights and health service providers' responsibilities.
- Assisting individuals in pursuing their interests, participating in activities and fostering connections within the community.
- Identifying opportunities for additional community participation and social inclusion.
The six senses of support work
People need a sense of belonging, fulfilment, and purpose. The table below highlights the environment and practices needed to achieve the following senses for both tangata and those in support roles.
| Tangata needing support | Support worker | |
|---|---|---|
| A sense of security | Feeling safe and free from threat, pain or discomfort. It also means living as independently as they are able. | Being free from physical threat or censure, having secure work conditions and working within a supportive culture. |
| A sense of continuity | Having their life history, life experiences and their knowledge of the past recognised. | Having a positive experience of working with the people they are supporting, exposure to good role models and sound care and support environments. |
| A sense of belonging | Having opportunities to form meaningful social interactions and relationships and to feel part of a group or community as desired. | Feeling part of a team with a recognised contribution. |
| A sense of purpose | Having opportunities to engage in purposeful activity and to be able to achieve goals and challenging pursuits. | Having a clear set of goals. |
| A sense of fulfilment | Having opportunities to meet meaningful and valued goals and to feel satisfied with their efforts. It also means having their strengths acknowledged and valued. | Being able to provide quality care and feeling satisfied with their efforts. |
| A sense of significance | Feeling valued as people of worth and that they ‘matter’. | Feeling like the type of support work they do is valued and important and that their work and efforts matter. |
Reflection
Click the link to access the Te Pou webpage: Hear from support workers. Watch the three videos on the page profiling mental health and addiction support workers.
Reflect on the following questions:
- The speakers in the videos talk about how rewarding this work is. Why does this sort of work appeal to you?
- What skills and personality traits do you need to be a mental health and addiction support worker?
Activity
Complete the following exercise on the responsibilities of mental health or addiction support workers.
Characteristics
Tangata accessing community health services will have a broad range of characteristics you may need to consider when providing care. These may include their:
- age and stage of development
- gender
- coping strategies
- culture
- disabilities
- experience and knowledge
- level of whānau support
- health status
- personal history
- language use
- sexual orientation
- housing situation
- socio-economic situation
Holistic approach to needs
Taking a holistic approach when addressing a client’s needs is important. This means considering all aspects of the person and supporting the whole person, not just their health needs.
Activity
Complete the following activity, listing the potential needs of your client.
There are a range of organisations providing services to those seeking help with mental health and addiction needs. Each organisation will have its own service philosophy, which describes the models or approaches of support that may be applied within a health or wellbeing setting. A service philosophy provides an over-arching set of underlying principles, aims and objectives, operational parameters, and reviewable outcomes that direct the nature of service user support and its provision.
The following are some examples of organisations that may employ support workers to work in the mental health and addiction field.
Mahitahi Trust
Mahitahi Trust is a Kaupapa Maori mental health and addictions provider committed to helping individuals and whānau achieve wellness through integrated Tikanga Māori services. Their commitment is to improve the wellbeing through the practice of Wairuatanga, Whanaungatanga, Manaakitanga, Kaitiakitanga, Rangatiratanga, Matauranga, Mahi Ngatahi and Te Ahi Kaa Roa.
Click for more information: mahitahi.co.nz
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army provides alcohol and drug addiction through its Bridge programme. This programme provides a range of support services that help reduce the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol. It provides both recovery information and practical tools to support addiction recovery.
Click for more information: bridge.salvationarmy.org.nz
The Salvation Army also provides help for gambling addiction through their Oasis programme. This programme provides gambling counselling support for the client and their whānau, along with assistance to organise interventions such as self-exclusion from gambling venues.
Click for more information: oasis.salvation.org.nz
Emerge Aotearoa
Emerge Aotearoa is a committed Tangata Tiriti organisation and a national provider of mental health, addiction, disability, correction services, wellbeing, and housing services. It is a not-for-profit organisation providing services across New Zealand. The core values of the organisation are based on Māori concepts Whakawhanaunga, Manaakitanga, Ako and Whakamana.
Click for more information: emergeaotearoa.org.nz
Pact
Pact is a major provider of community, vocational and residential-based intellectual disability, mental health and addiction services across Southland, Otago, West Coast and the Lower North Island. Services offered provide a safe and positive environment where clients are assisted to achieve maximum independence.
Click for more information: pactgroup.co.nz
Pathways – Ahakoa Te Aha
Pathways is a mental health and addiction service provider providing in-home support, residential recovery and wellbeing programmes. Pathways provides a specialised youth service called Real.
Click for more information: pathways.co.nz/
Penina Trust
Penina Trust is a Pacific-led NGO (non-government organisation) with an emphasis on Faa Pasefika – the Pacific Way. They work closely with the individual, their wider whānau/aiga, communities and other social services.
As part of their services, they offer a range of mental health programmes for people in residential care and in the community. They also provide support for whānau of people experiencing mental illness.
Click for more information: penina.org.nz
Comcare Trust
Comcare Trust provides mental health and addiction services in the Canterbury area. They focus on connecting people to their community through relationship building, financial management and facilitating participation in activities. They also provide community housing and help with job seeking.
Click for more information: comcare.org.nz
Explore
Choose one of the healthcare providers listed above. Visit their website and perform any other research required to answer the following questions.
- Which organisation are you investigating?
- What type of people are supported by the organisation?
- What services do they provide?
- Which parts of New Zealand do they service?
Post your findings on the 5.2.2 Healthcare providers forum thread.
Mental wellbeing is more than an absence of mental health or addiction issues. Wellbeing means we have the tools, support and environments we need to be who we are and to build and sustain lives worth living.
Wellness can be defined in many ways. The following diagram shows the eight dimensions of wellness as described by Dr Margaret Swarbrick.
As discussed previously, Māori see wellness as having four dimensions:
- Taha wairua - spiritual wellbeing
- Taha hinengaro - mental and emotional wellbeing
- Taha tinana - physical wellbeing
- Taha whānau- social wellbeing and being connected to whenua
Having these dimensions in balance means people thrive; when one or more dimensions are out of balance, wellbeing can be impacted.
Mental wellbeing enables people to cope with the stresses of life, be familiar with their abilities, learn well and work well, cope with the normal stresses of life and contribute to their community.
