Foreword
Alison Taylor, Chief Executive, Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand
Welcome to MindNet; a new resource to help keep you informed about the latest developments in mental health promotion and prevention in Aotearoa New Zealand. This newsletter provides a vehicle for disseminating information including research, policy, good practice, evidence, and events.
MindNet is a project that the Mental Health Foundation developed, and it has initially been funded for two pilot versions by a range of agencies that support the project and its vision, and their support is greatly appreciated. As a pilot newsletter we welcome your active participation and encourage you to give us your feedback so that we can make this the most useful tool for your work in this emerging area.
The model of mental health and wellbeing used in this newsletter (resembling a rosette cluster) was developed to help illustrate that the foundations for mental health are to be found as much outside the mind and body as within.
Research shows that people's experiences of mental health and wellbeing are strongly influenced by the past and present conditions, structures and processes that are part of our lives. These can significantly promote or reduce our wellbeing. We also designed this model to help guide readers to articles by topic and field.
You may be asking why produce a pilot newsletter now? The time is right for such a comprehensive resource for people working in this area and for other people wanting to learn more to enhance their existing practice. The timing is also right in a policy context with the recent arrival of ‘Building on Strengths’, the national policy framework on mental health promotion and prevention and the development of a new national mental health plan.
We are also fortunate to be hosting the third world conference on Mental Health Promotion and the Prevention of Mental and Behavioural disorders, to be held in Auckland in September (14-17) 2004 www.charity.demon.co.uk. Over 300 delegates from all over the world will be attending and participating in presentations and workshops – bringing the latest good practice and research to our shores. The second edition of MindNet will focus on some of the key themes from the conference. One of the main events within the conference will be the launch by the World Health Organisation of three reports on mental health promotion and prevention. The first summary report is reviewed in this first edition.
A good information resource which provides regular updates on emerging issues, new evidence, a range of perspectives and analysis is much needed in this changing environment. We hope that this new approach will go a long way towards meeting this need and will grow into an on-going resource for mental health and wider communities.
