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PAGE 12 BAY HARBOUR<br />
Wednesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>16</strong> 20<strong>16</strong><br />
Your Local Views<br />
Mental health support needed<br />
Green MP<br />
Eugenie<br />
Sage talks<br />
about<br />
Monday<br />
morning’s<br />
earthquakes<br />
and where<br />
to seek help<br />
if you’re<br />
feeling<br />
stressed.<br />
Well that was an unpleasant<br />
start to the week. Big hugs to<br />
everyone in Kaikoura, Marlborough,<br />
North Canterbury and<br />
Wellington, living through aftershocks,<br />
dealing with damage and<br />
loss, and grappling with how to<br />
repair hearts, homes, businesses,<br />
and infrastructure.<br />
Well done to folk who helped<br />
support Christchurch residents<br />
who had to leave home as a result<br />
of the tsunami warnings.<br />
I’m writing this on Monday<br />
morning with little information<br />
on the full extent of damage<br />
further north. Here in Christchurch,<br />
people’s emotional and<br />
psychological wellbeing has<br />
probably taken a bigger hit from<br />
the long, rolling earthquake<br />
than buildings, roads and other<br />
infrastructure.<br />
Wherever you are – kindness<br />
is contagious. Reaching out to<br />
friends, family and neighbours<br />
for a cup of tea or coffee, contact<br />
and conversation can help reduce<br />
post-quake stress. So can sticking<br />
to daily and weekly routines<br />
and staying active – taking a<br />
walk, enjoying nature.<br />
The All Right? health promotion<br />
campaign and the Mental<br />
Health Foundation’s five ways<br />
to wellbeing are good sources of<br />
practical advice on how to stay<br />
well.<br />
But for some that won’t be<br />
enough. There has been a major<br />
increase in demand for mental<br />
health services in Christchurch<br />
after the 2011 quakes, especially<br />
among young people. They seek<br />
help for a range of issues, including<br />
severe depression, anxiety,<br />
self-harm and suicidal thoughts.<br />
New figures show that young<br />
people are facing unreasonably<br />
long waiting times to receive<br />
follow-up appointments after<br />
seeking help. In the last year, up<br />
to 3297 young people around<br />
New Zealand had to wait longer<br />
than eight weeks to have a<br />
second face-to-face appointment<br />
with a medical professional after<br />
seeking help. Canterbury was<br />
one of four areas with the longest<br />
waiting times.<br />
No one should not have to wait<br />
weeks on end to get the medical<br />
help they need. Our mental<br />
health professionals do a fantastic<br />
job but services are stretched<br />
and struggling.<br />
This is partly because Government<br />
has cut the overall health<br />
budget, scrapped the Mental<br />
Health Commission and focused<br />
resources on targets that don’t<br />
include mental health.<br />
We need better funding for<br />
the Canterbury District Health<br />
Board and community services.<br />
And we need a nationwide inquiry<br />
into mental health services<br />
similar to the Mason Report in<br />
the 90s, to ensure that New Zealanders<br />
can access the support<br />
they need.<br />
Free help is available. Phone<br />
0800 777 846.<br />
Readers respond to<br />
last week’s article on<br />
Redcliffs School possibly<br />
being located on a Maori<br />
burial site at Redcliffs<br />
Park.<br />
Shanna Olsen-Reeder –<br />
Who cares about property values?<br />
I can’t believe that’s people’s<br />
main concern rather than the<br />
disrespectful act of building<br />
over a cemetery.<br />
Pamela Neil – I can not<br />
believe all this carry on over<br />
a school site. It will devalue<br />
properties in the area if a school<br />
is built on the park and if part of<br />
it is a burial ground from many<br />
years ago, Maori will take more<br />
time to confirm this. Leave<br />
the school where it is! Nearly<br />
seven years have gone by and<br />
a generation of children have<br />
been deprived of attending the<br />
school. Is there someone who<br />
can make sensible and binding<br />
decisions in Christchurch. I<br />
am embarrassed to say I come<br />
from this once beautiful city. It<br />
is now a hotchpotch of cheaply<br />
constructed, ugly housing and<br />
bad town planning. Get on with<br />
the rebuild before people die<br />
waiting.<br />
Trevor Walmsley – Loose<br />
$300,000 to $400,000 in property<br />
values – many people in<br />
New Zealand can’t even afford<br />
to own a house.<br />
Karl Dean – People are so<br />
selfish these days, honestly won’t<br />
it increase your value being<br />
within walking distance of the<br />
school?<br />
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