Angels at our tables: A summary of the findings from a 3-year research project into New Zealanders’ Experiences of Hearing Voices

Vanessa Beavan , John Read and Claire Cartwright

Rationale and objectives of the research In 2003, researchers at the University of Auckland began developing a project to investigate the experience of hearing voices in the general New Zealand population. The idea for the project was based on international research suggesting that hearing voices is a relatively common experience, reported by approximately 5 to 10% of the general population. Findings from these international studies also demonstrated that voices could be experienced in many different ways, from positive and enriching to negative and distressing. The New Zealand study had 4 main objectives. 1. To map the range of hearing voices experiences in the general population. This included investigating topographical characteristics such as content, form and identity of voices, as well as the impact the experience has on people’s lives. 2. To explore voice-hearers’ own explanatory models and analyse how these relate to the ways in which their voices are experienced. 3. To increase knowledge about effective ways of managing voices. This included identifying coping strategies that voice-hearers use and evaluating their effectiveness, as well as exploring voice-hearers’ experiences with mental health agencies and other support services. 4. To seek out and describe the essential structure of the phenomenon of hearing voices, in an attempt to provide a definition of this phenomenon that will fit across the range of different voice-hearing experiences.

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A paper presented to the NEW ZEALAND ACTION RESEARCH NETWORK

by

Mary O'Hagan is a consultant on mental health issues.

Arana Pearson is Consumer Consultant with the Mental Health Commission and a representative of the Consumer Advisory Group to the Project to Counter Stigma and Discrimination.

Warren Lindberg is the Manager, Project to Counter Stigma and Discrimination, Health Funding Authority.

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ABSTRACT: Critical issues for workforce development and service delivery

This paper is a discussion about issues of power achieving recovery in mental health. There is an acknowledgement of the lack of overt discussions concerning power in the mental health sector. Power is defined; next there is a discussion of power from the vantage points of health practioner delivery, a systemic approach, and from a consumer perspective. The assumption here is that issues of power need to be overtly addressed in Mental Health in order for recovery outcomes to be achieved for consumers of mental health Services.

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• A resource that helps voice hearers to cope with voices
• What does not help
• Emotional focussing
• Comforting techniques
• Positive Emotional techniques
• Relaxation techniques
• Points to remember to look after myself
• Things that work for me in a crisis

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Simple guide for supporting people who hear voices. Topics include

• What are voices
• Coping with voices
• Supporting the empowerment of the voice hearer

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Critical issues for people with a mental illness pursuing higher education 2001

Progress Through Partnerships Conference, Massey University 2001 Keynote address by Arana Pearson:

Abstract:Mental illness is projected to become the second largest cause of disability within the next twenty years. Yet current experience suggests students with experience of mental illness are not readily accessing support to participate in higher learning. The most likely the reason for this is the stress and distress of disclosure within an environment of pervasive negative discrimination, alongside the financial pressure of living costs associated with student life including the personal costs of academic study with associated burden of student loan. For those people who do request supports from institutions of higher learning, there are some practical support strategies that can be made. The challenge in terms of partnership is for the education sector to work with the mental health sector, and for the mental health sector to work with the education sector and for both sectors to attempt partnerships with psychiatric survivors in the true spirit of “nothing about us without us”.

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RECLAIMING BEDLAM THE CHALLENGE OF SHIFTING THE PARADIGM OF MENTAL ILLNESS Keynote address: Presented at the Building Bridges Conference Auckland March 30, 2000 BY ARANA PEARSON (B.A.)

Notes from the address outlining contributing values and paradigms toward the understanding of mental illness in the various cultures of New Zealand

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By Mr Arana Pearson,

ABSTRACT The twentieth century saw the rise and development of public mental health services in Victoria (and about the world) as psychiatry and psychology became established branches of enquiry into the human condition. The rise of consumer voices have been a feature of recent mental health service development and so some reflection upon the meaning of that contribution is considered here with particular reference to practice, service systems design and innovative practice about consumer lead service delivery. As recovery becomes a new paradigm, the question ‘what does recovery mean’ and ‘what does a recovery focused mental health system look like’ is defined and discussed. Throughout the discussion, the paper assesses the place of the recovery concept in mental health and asks whether the current rhetoric about the sector is merely ‘a case of the emperor’s new clothes’, or has there been a fundamental shift in Mental Health. Key words: paradigm, recovery, psycho-social, person-centered, medical, culture.

Invited paper delivered in Melbourne 2004 at the Vicserv conference

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RECOVERY: CHALLENGING THE PARADIGM (a consumer perspective) By Mr Arana Pearson,

ABSTRACT The twentieth century saw the rise and development of public mental health services in Victoria (and about the world) as psychiatry and psychology became established branches of enquiry into the human condition. The rise of consumer voices have been a feature of recent mental health service development and so some reflection upon the meaning of that contribution is considered here with particular reference to practice, service systems design and innovative practice about consumer lead service delivery. As recovery becomes a new paradigm, the question ‘what does recovery mean’ and ‘what does a recovery focused mental health system look like’ is defined and discussed. Throughout the discussion, the paper assesses the place of the recovery concept in mental health and asks whether the current rhetoric about the sector is merely ‘a case of the emperor’s new clothes’, or has there been a fundamental shift in Mental Health.

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The write up of a performance piece/ keynote address describing a consumer exchange between New Zealand and Australia for the TheMHS conference in Melbourne.

Cath’s dream I dream that we will come to see that when things are done against a person’s will, it is of the utmost gravity. We have to own when this is done. If we are to continue to perform acts against a person’s will, then we have to see it for what it is - a sin, a human sin. If you argue that it is necessary, you must still acknowledge that it is sinning against humanness. When you do this to another - understand what you are doing. Don’t turn us into sick objects so that you can exonerate yourself. I am you, you are me.

Arana’s dream “Psychiatry Rehumanised: For too long a time - half a century, in fact - psychiatry tried to interpret the human mind as merely a mechanism, and consequently the therapy of mental disease merely in terms of a technique. I believe this dream has been dreamt out. What now begins to loom on the horizon are not the sketches of a psychologised medicine, but rather those of a humanised psychiatry”. (Victor Frankl “Man’s Search for Meaning”)

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