Changing Minds

Online hui for youth this Wednesday 📆

Are you under 24? Do you want to improve mental health support in our community?

Local youth mental health services in the Wellington region are being reviewed, and Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand and Te-Upoko-me-Te-Karu-o-Te-Ika | Mental Health, Addiction and Intellectual Disability Service (MHAIDS) are holding an online hui to discuss what works best for young people.

You’ll have the chance to talk about your experiences, share your ideas, and shape the future of services. There's a Prezzy card koha to thank you for your time.

When: 4.30pm, Wednesday 26 August
Online meeting link: https://f.mtr.cool/lvkswrqdck
Meeting ID: 823 5582 4805
Passcode: 893121

For more info contact 👉 [email protected]

Whakatupu Mana symposium next Thursday 27 August 📆

Addressing Prejudice and Discrimination: Through Lived Experience-Led Solutions.

Proudly hosted by Te Rau Ora, Te Kete Pounamu & our Nōku te Ao partners, you're welcome to join what will be a powerful day celebrating the innovation, leadership, and achievements of Māori lived experience communities, while showcasing Māori-led solutions that continue to strengthen hauora hinengaro and inspire positive systems change.

For more information and for tickets, check out 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/dowibluprg

Beautiful event at Te Pou Theatre on 28+29 August 🎭

Some conversations change everything.
At an engagement party, two women who have never met find themselves alone in a bathroom.
One is trying to hide.
The other simply asks, “Are you okay?”

Written by award-winning Tāmaki Makaurau playwright Sheree Veysey, Party Conversations is a powerful, emotionally rich one-act drama that balances humour, humanity and heartbreak with remarkable authenticity.

Following the performance, audiences are invited to stay for Beyond the Curtain—a facilitated community conversation with lived experience advocates, survivor organisations and invited guests.

This inaugural event also marks the public launch of Liminal Rhythm Trust, from friend of Changing Minds and Tall Tree, Tamara Waugh—a survivor-led charity supporting wāhine beyond survival after sexual harm through peer-led programmes, restorative retreats, community connection and innovation. All proceeds from the evening will help establish and grow these services across Aotearoa.

To find out more and reserve your tickets, visit 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/uwphaaoomm

Changing Minds community, this is an event not to be missed! Get your tickets and show your support for friend and Tall Tree, Tamara Waugh, and her powerful mahi ❤️

Party Conversations is an intimate evening of performance, music, and conversation.

Across the night, you’ll experience:
– A live performance piece grounded in lived experience
– Music to open and close the space
– A facilitated community conversation following the show

It’s not a typical event.

It’s designed to be felt — not just watched.

To create space for reflection, connection, and conversation in a way that is safe, grounded, and thoughtfully held.

This is part of how we build community around the work.

And part of how we continue to fund it.

Get your tickets here: https://www.tepoutheatre.nz/party-conversations/

🔶Election 2026🔶

Platform Trust are hosting the only Mental Health & Addiction Election Debate on Monday 31 August in Wellington - the event will also be live streamed. This is an important opportunity to connect and ensure the Lived Experience voice is heard ahead of the election.

Find out more about the event here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/thazhggncq

Register for in person and online attendance here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/grjpchqtvd

Last week marked an important moment for mental health and wellbeing in Aotearoa, with the release of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026–2036 and its implementation plan. For Changing Minds, it also marked the culmination of months of work alongside our communities and other stakeholders to help ensure Lived Experience perspectives were at the centre of the strategy.

Megan, our Engagement and Insights Manager, says there is plenty in the plan to feel encouraged by—from stronger prevention and early intervention, to investment in community-led initiatives, a national plan to eliminate seclusion, and new ways for Lived Experience voices to help shape policy and system design.

Strategies are just roadmaps, though, what matters now is how we implement the actions and as community, drive the changes that matter most to us.

Pictured at the launch of the strategy at Parliament are Kev and Megan with our consultation delivery partners from Te Kete Pounamu, Synergia, and the Ministry of Health.

You can view the strategy and implementation plan on the Ministry of Health website 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/bngnenfrut

Governance board opportunity 💡

Te Ata is recruiting new board members and we're helping to spread the word.

Te Ata is a peer-led community wellbeing centre that believes people with lived experience bring invaluable insight, compassion and leadership. Their invitation says they are "looking for new board members who share our commitment to supporting the wellbeing of our West Auckland community. As a board member, you'll help guide the future of Te Ata, support our vision and values, and ensure our services continue to make a positive difference in people's lives. If you're passionate about community, recovery, connection and creating opportunities for others, we'd love to hear from you. These are voluntary positions. Lived experience preferred."

If interested, please contact Daniel Sutton 👉 [email protected]

Visit Te Ata's website 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/uvglurssxv

The wonderful Ivan Yeo has written another beautiful and thought-provoking piece on his blog.

This one is about intergenerational stories and how they can be told to either stimulate growth or restrict to more of the same.

We're struck how this embodies the Lived Experience community. Ivan talked about those who took the limitations or restrictions or boundaries they were given and used them to open doors for others.

Lived Experience storytelling allows for understanding to grow, and to enable both hope and change for this generation and those to come.

You can read Ivan's powerful words here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/mlhvmxywmi

🔶Election 2026🔶

As we wait for the responses from the political parties to our community letter, we continue to be motivated by what we've heard from you.

This quote highlights what can be overlooked - we often use stigma and discrimination in the same sentence, but the impact of those things include disempowerment, which carries so much weight.

Disempowerment feeds those feelings of being less than or unworthy or broken. As this community member so powerfully says - "Many people experience stigma and disempowerment within services. A rights-based, trauma-informed, culturally safe system, with lived experience embedded in design and delivery, is essential. People are not broken - the system needs to change."

You can read the community responses and our letter to MPs here 👉 https://f.mtr.cool/fiomaaokcy