Foreword
Welcome to the summer issue of Mindnet - and what great summer weather we're having - an encouragement to enjoy the outdoors, get into some physical activities and feel good. Beauty and availability of the environment, time with friends and family etc is a good balance to the gloom of the economic recession - and hopefully helps keep perspective.
This issue we decided to take a look at men's mental health and mental health promotion.
For our feature, we are honoured that Dr Lynne Pere has chosen to share a very personal journey with us. It is a journey that she and her whānau are still on.
Our case studies focus on New Zealand programmes that are making a difference. In Kaitaia there is a special school based anti-bullying programme, Aaron Steedman talks about the No Excuses programme and Candace Bagnall updates us on the National Depression Initiative.
Up and down the country, people had a lot of fun raising money for Movember.
As part of the campaign, we share Grant Cooper's interview with the New Zealand Woman's Weekly. Grant works in our southern mental health promotion team and spoke to the NZWW about his experience of mental illness to help promote Movember.
We've also spoken to Gary Sutcliffe from the Auckland Regional Consumer Network about his work.
We take a look at a number of issues that men face such as gay men's mental health, stigma and men's mental health, alcohol and men's mental health and an opinion column from Mark Smith.
Our physical health article talks about a successful men's programme called Dads 'n' Lads that was piloted in Rotorua last year.
We've introduced a couple of new items - food and mood and a book review - and also have our regular reading list.
There were of course many ideas and information about men's mental health that we were not able to cover, but we extend our thanks to all those who were able to contribute.
We hope that you enjoy the articles in this issue and remember, if you are interested in contributing an article to MindNet then please feel free to contact the Mental Health Foundation at mindnet@mentalhealth.org.nz.
We would also love to get your feedback on MindNet, so please follow the link to our feedback form and tell us what you think!
Naku iti-nei, Judi Clements
