RETHiNK Madness workshops
Our RETHiNK Madness workshops are free custom designed workshops aimed at supporting people to:
- rethink their attitudes to and ideas about mental distress
- hold and explore multiple perspectives
- develop mentally healthy workplaces free of stigma and discrimination
These workshops are equally as valuable to business and corporate, secondary and tertiary education, and creative or performance industries as they are to the primary, general and mental health sectors. RETHiNK workshops allow participants explore, understand and accept individual and societal attitudes toward those with an experience of mental illness or distress, and help to explain these experiences in the context of a particular environment, workplace or industry.
RETHiNK workshops aim to help participants make sense of mental illness, experience mental illness and rethink mental illness. This is achieved via a number of activities and discussions. Participants look at the environments and experiences that are common pre-cursers to un-wellness and what makes people resilient. They explore their own attitudes to people with an experience of mental illness, discuss the impact and complexities of stigma and discrimination and hear facilitators’ own personal accounts of un-wellness and recovery.
The end result of a workshop for participants is a fuller understanding of what constitutes mental wellbeing, not only for those with an experience of mental illness or distress but for themselves as well.
There are several modules ranging from one hour to a full day that explore different themes and contexts including, workplace and corporate peer-support, de-stigmatising particular diagnoses, the impact of labels, different models of health, mental illness in community and cultural context and the consumer perspective of pharmacology to name a few.
There are also specific workshops focussed on the creative, performance and media sectors being developed by us in collaboration with the Mental Health Foundation including a media literacy workshops, a script-writers resource and workshops for actors portraying mental illness to help these industries create a truthful and sensitive representation without losing impact.
For clinicians in primary, general and mental health areas these workshops are particularly valuable as it not only reinforces a culture of clinical inclusion (i.e.; each perspective being equally valuable in impacting a person’s wellbeing within the multidisciplinary work context) but acknowledges the bio-medical model as the context of their practice and seeks to expand holistic knowledge and recovery practice within this framework.
For the corporate and business sector, workshops encourage a culture of exploring the value of experiences that promote resilience and help to develop strategies where employers and work colleagues can support people to continue working and stabilise or even increase their productivity. Additionally, EEO Award winners Mind and Body Consultants Ltd are experts in Peer Support training and supervision and can help companies to develop workplace peer support systems as well as policies that value diversity and work-life flexibility to reduce turnover and attrition and increase profit.
For education providers, RETHiNK workshops are tailored to meet student, subject or course learning objectives. We take into account age, social culture, interactive learning requirements and academic pressure to relate safe and appropriate case studies, stories and activities. For lecturers, teachers, facilitators and school guidance counsellors, specific RETHiNK workshops encourage participants to explore and dissect the many environments in which they and their students interact and encourage a culture of inclusion and peer acceptance. The workshops and presentations also look at tools for developing systems of early intervention and wellbeing support for staff and students alike. Both of these workshops can also include topical modules on media literacy.
A RETHiNK workshop may explore concepts like understanding why we think and behave a particular way, allow participants to actually taste of some of those feelings of mental distress within a safe environment in order to dissect myths and promote recovery-oriented practice. The facilitators are trained and experienced mental health professionals who also have personal experience of mental distress. We often share our own recovery stories if appropriate, and welcome difficult questions either during the workshop or privately afterwards which are answered honestly and openly.
Ideally a workshop allows at least 2-3 hours to explore concepts fully through experiential learning, and should have no more than 20 people per facilitator, but in saying that we can tailor the workshop to your needs, and have 2-3 facilitators who can run joint workshops, parallel sessions, or interactive lecture-style presentations.
We provide most workshops either free, or by Koha or donation as part of the national ‘Like Minds, Like Mine’ programme, but ask the host to provide an appropriate workshop space, car parking and/or travel accommodation expenses if necessary and participant refreshments if required.
For more information on the RETHiNK workshops or any of our other initiatives contact the Like Minds, Like Mine team at Mind and Body Consultants Ltd for an information pack.
Email: likeminds@mindandbody.co.nz
Phone: (09) 6305909 ext 870