A year in reflection: The final article of the 4th KXXD Newspaper Campaign
As editor of the KXXD newspaper I have the privilege of being the first reader of the articles, and I personally benefit from each one. I would like to reflect on what I learned from reading the 4th Newspaper Campaign, and also wish to share my thoughts our readers.
This year we prepared 10 articles. The first, Open you heart and let in the sunshine, introduced the theme of the campaign. Here are the titles of the remaining nine articles:
- How to overcome alcohol and drug problems
- Leaving a gambling problem behind
- Introducing Waitemata Asian Mental Health Service
- When to seek help from police
- Supporting Families
- Personal perspective of an Asian Immigrant - seeking hope
- Primary Health Organisations – your first point of contact
- The role of the pharmacist
- Making Mental Health Everyone's Business
The purpose of our articles
The purpose of our articles is to encourage Chinese communities to break the barriers of stigma and discrimination associated with mental illnesses so they can seek and get help. The articles address three common myths about people who experience mental illness in the Chinese community.
The first common myth is that people who experience mental illness cannot recover.
Personal perspective of an Asian Immigrant – seeking hope used a real person’s story as an example to address this issue. It is a story about a young man who came to New Zealand to fulfill his dream, but due to stress and loneliness he begins to experience mental illness.
Family members were shocked and saddened and believed that this would be the end of his life. To their surprise, he is not only recover but has also graduated from his study and is now working for a mainstream organisation with a sense of purpose, and is able to live his life to the fullest.
Hope is often mentioned in this article; unfortunately many people who experience mental illness are afraid of the possibility of relapse. No one can predict a relapse and when this happens hope seem to be far away. The story demonstrates how he understands that relapses are a process toward recovery and he did not give up hope or himself. He saw himself making changes everyday.
There are many mental health service supports to help people recover. They are there to help and implement recovery. The very reason that services exist, and are in demand and are effective is proof enough that recovery is possible as long as you take your time and be persistent and do not give up.
The second myth is that people who experience mental illness will be locked away and punished
Believing this usually leads to a delay in help-seeking behavior. Many professionals interviewed talk about Chinese people’s delay in help seeking, and their fear of losing face or being discriminated against, and some do not know what kind of services are available.
However, regardless what your fears are, it is best to get help in the early stages of distress, instead of delaying it until situation the situation is much worse.
Why do we need to get help early?
The reason is simple. In life, we face many difficulties and challenges, and most of the time we can overcome these without support or help.
Unfortunately sometimes those challenges are beyond our ability to deal with, especially when someone is experiencing a mental illness. We also need to bear in mind that when someone is experiences mental illness it is wise to get help early so they can get full support from the beginning.
Two of our articles clearly show that when you actively seek support you will get it and your chance of a quicker recovery is enhanced.
The Asian Immigrant story focused a lot on the love and support from his sister. Because of her belief in his recovery and her encouragement, he decided to come back to New Zealand to try again.
He talks about how he gets help from the mental health services in New Zealand and how he learned about recovery. He gained financial support from Work and Income so he could focus on his recovery and also got professional support from a psychiatrist, psychologist, social worker and nurses.
He accepted their professional help and support and took one step at the time. He experiences relapsed but was actively working toward recovery.
Further support from the Waitemata DHB Asian Mental Health Service enabled him to develop a Wellness Recovery Action Plan. But what he will never forget, is his first peer support worker, Ivan, who encouraged him and helped him to find his potential which eventually changed his life.
All the help and support enabled him to recover, and as he said in his article, without all the support and help I would not have what I have today.
Services for Chinese people who experience mental illness
New Zealand is a well-resourced country and Chinese people can fully utilize it resources and expertise when it comes to mental health services. This is especially useful when English is not your first language. You can access language services.
In this newspaper campaign, KXXD introduced a number of the Asian/Chinese mental health services in New Zealand, including for drug and alcohol problems, gambling problems, Chinese Kai XIn Xing Dong, SF Auckland, family support, WDHB Asian Mental Health Service, CMDHB Asian Development service, Yan Oi Sei and East Health Trust.
The campaign also includes the primary function of pharmacist and New Zealand Police liaison. KXXD will introduce other mental health or health related services in the future.
Most of the mental health services are free and people who work in the field are qualified professionals. Services are professional and humane. We would like to encourage Chinese communities to use these services because they are here to serve you.
Lastly, I think this year’s KXXD articles have clearly demonstrated the importance of having information for Chinese communities. The information will help to empower Chinese people who experience mental illness and convey the message of recovery. At the same time, we have let people know that we should help and support our loved ones.
Thank you to the Chinese Herald, which has been supporting this newspaper campaign since 2006.
David, Editor KXXD 4th Newspaper Campaign
