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Kia ora,


Did you know that health and wellbeing behaviours developed during childhood can largely shape success later in life? Our tamariki are encountering increasing challenges which have significant impacts on their hauora. Factors like increased loneliness, discrimination, harmful environments, social pressures, increased social media usage, and worries about COVID-19 and the future are just a few of the struggles that impact the mental health of tamariki (Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey).
 
We have some tips to support children through anxiety in this issue - read on. We also have resources for parents and caregivers on our website and, if you think your child could use specialist support, we have child psychologists too.
When it comes to support to children's mental health, we are also very proud of our partnership with the Life Education Trust to empower young people to grow their hauora and meet challenges with resilience through the Healthy Minds initiative.
With materials developed by the Life Education Trust and revised by our team of child and youth psychologists, Healthy Minds is providing teachers support to teach children resilience and strategies to manage anxiety and will reach over 250,000 children every year. Have your children been in touch with the Healthy Minds materials?  
Keep reading to join a great kids' book giveaway, check out a COVID-19 vaccine update for people with mental health and addiction issues, see what our Community Education team has been up to and more. 

Thanks for joining us in our journey.

Kia kaha, be kind and look after yourself, your whānau and friends,

The Anxiety NZ team
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People with mental health and addiction issues are
now prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccine in New Zealand

This is significant news for people with lived experience of mental health and addiction issues, acknowledging peoples’ greater physical health needs and honouring these needs through prioritised access to the vaccine.

This announcement is the result of months of work by the Equally Well collaborative, a nationwide group of people and organisations (among them Anxiety NZ) committed to finding solutions to achieve physical health equity for people who experience mental health and addiction issues.

The Equally Well backbone team convened a group of expert advisors to consider the available evidence in relation to people with mental health and addiction issues and COVID-19 to make recommendations to the Ministry of Health’s policy team developing the Vaccination Sequencing Framework. The advisory group found strong evidence to support adults with mental health and addiction issues being prioritised for the vaccination, released a position statement in January 2021 and kept advocating to the Ministry of Health until they got this important result. It highlights the collective impact of a group of dedicated people. Well done, Equally Well team! We are proud to be part of this initiative!

More info about the COVID-19 vaccination rollout www.covid19.govt.nz  

Our free 24/7 National ANXIETY HELPLINE can be reached via
0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389) or visit our website for additional support.

Our Community Education team has been busy!

Check out some highlights of the past month

Women's resilience building, anxiety and stress management workshop at the Auckland Women's Centre
Anxiety and self-compassion workshop for youth workers to support our rangatahi at Shore Junction
Our National Manager, Goldie Hamilton, talking about anxiety management at the Driving Change Network Conference
Goldie doing some professional development and networking at Transforming Mental Health Conference
Anxiety New Zealand team updates

We are proud to announce that two of our most talented and dedicated staff have been promoted and will be doing even more for our organisation. Meet Goldie Hamilton, who has been doing an amazing job as our Helpline Manager since 2016 and is now our National Manager, and Sam (Samantha Heaney), who's been great support in our admin team and is our new Clinic Manager.
Goldie joined the Trust as a helpline volunteer in 2013 and has been increasingly involved since. As our new National Manager, Goldie will promote community education and training and connect Anxiety NZ services and education with more regions around New Zealand, alongside her fantastic work managing our free 24/7 National Anxiety Helpline with a team of 90 Volunteer Workers. Goldie enjoys training and supporting our helpline team and community members across Aotearoa and is passionate about spreading awareness and increasing anxiety management skills within the community.
Sam joined us in 2017 through an internship for her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Criminology. She has since worked as part of our administration team and is now our Clinic Manager. She completed her Honours in Psychology in 2020, and is starting her PhD, with the intention of becoming a registered psychologist. Sam is passionate about the study of psychology and mental health, and is committed to helping people in this field. She understands that seeking mental health support is an important step, and believes in the importance removing barriers to accessing support and providing education to communities. 
We want to say a BIG THANK YOU to our latest funders:
BlueSky Community Trust
The Southern Trust
Kerr Taylor Foundation
David Ellison Charitable Trust
Sutherland Self Help Trust
Albert-Eden Local Board

Your support will allow us to deliver more to our community in your regions.
Helping children manage anxiety

All children and youth experience anxiety at some point. An effective way to help your children through anxiety is communication. By maintaining an open dialog with your child and encouraging them to talk about their feelings, you can help them to build resilience and emotional intelligence. Here are some tips to help caregivers support their children through anxiety:

Don’t talk them out of it. We automatically want to give reassurance by saying that everything will be OK. We also often end up allowing them to avoid the fearful situation. Unfortunately, this response may keep the anxiety going.
Ask what it feels like for them. Give them time and space to answer in their own way. An anxious child needs to hear that you get it.
Name the anxious behaviour for them. For example, “talking in front of everyone is scary” or “you don’t want to come to school because it’s making you feel bad.” That’s avoidance.
Normalise it. Everyone experiences anxiety at some point in their life. Scary things happen and it can be really hard to cope. Anxiety can also seem to happen for no reason at all, this might mean something else in the child’s life is impacting them.

You can read more about it on our latest blog post here
ONLINE THERAPY FOR KIDS, TEENS & YOUNG ADULTS

We are now offering online therapy for kids, teens and young adults. It's a convenient, safe and private way to get mental health support. You may be eligible for partially or fully funded treatment. Get in touch today via our website or call 09 846 9776.
GIVEAWAY

The wolf is not invited tells the story of Wolfgang, a wolf who is left heartbroken when his best friend Catreen runs off without him to play with Clarissa. Spider shows Wolfgang how to make his own fun and Wolfgang realises that there are other great friends out there just waiting to be met! There are some situations and feelings that we cannot change and there are some that we can. Knowing the difference between the two (and some ways to make ourselves feel happy) is a great trick to have up our sleeves!

We have one copy of the book to give away. To be in to win, write to us at comms@anxiety.org.nz. Winner will be drawn randomly on 22 June 2021 at noon and contacted by email to provide shipping details (NZ addresses only).  
Enjoy the author telling the story to a group of kids at a Christchurch school
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