WHAT ROLE DOES COMMUNITY COLLABORATION PLAY IN MENTAL HEALTH INNOVATION?

 I am a firm believer in the importance and positive influence community connection can have for our mental health and wellbeing.

It has the ability to contribute to our sense of belonging; we can connect with people on a human level, sharing experiences, supporting each other in a myriad of different ways. Communities can also provide perspectives, pre-empt action and responses in real-time to the things that matter to their particular groups and spaces, acting through the lived-experience and understanding of what is important as a whole.

For me, my communities have been a stronghold in how I nurture my own wellbeing and mental health. Growing up as an only-child in a single parent household, it was the communities that my Mum and I were a part of that held me tight as I navigated through life. When we needed support, our communtiies were there for us, and when other’s needed support, we were there for them. Sometimes it was direct wellbeing and mental health support, other times, it was indirect; they helped ease some burdens, provided peace of mind and support to ensure we could keep moving forward rather than being stagnated by difficult times. 

On reflection, I can see that our community fed our strength and ability to ask for and accept support when we were vulnerable... and we could recirpocate this, when others needed a backing too. We could trust that if we didn’t have the capacity to be a driver for other’s in their time of need and vulnerability, they wouldn’t be alone – the rest of the community were there, providing compassionate and empowering support for those that needed it. 

It’s important, however, to recognise that not all communities are on a level playing field in terms of their resources and ability to operate and support collective wellbeing. 

Generally, more affluent and privileged communities are able to and are supported by our systems to offer a plethora of opportunities for connection and support. But competitive funding pools and value-based recogniton (which is often measured in alignment to Western-systematic modes and measurements) amongst many other factors are restricting financially under-privileged and resource-poor communities from serving their people with relative support. Similar to the way our dominant socio-political, economic and cultural systems prioritises individuals aligned with traditional western-values, our communties also face a similar bias for support and validity. 

Communities that don’t align with traditional western structures, that aren’t bound by geographical connection, that are struggling with their own individual and collective identities and day-to-day struggles don’t have the structural support that they deserve. 

Communities facing these realities are constantly having to focus their efforts on surviving, on fighting to be seen and heard, and included and respected for their place here in Aotearoa. The work required to provide adequate and relevant resource and support for each other is never-ending and rifled with barriers and complexity – but, we can do something about this. 

We have the ability to think and act courageously. 

If we truly care about the mental health and wellbeing of the people here in Aotearoa (and beyond), we need to step out of our preconceived ideas of what “community” and “support” is – we need to be innovative in our ways of relating and co-existing. 

Resources can be shared, translated and transformed. Let’s encourage and create a shared value system where communities support communities, where those recognised by the system create space for those that aren’t. 

If sectors support sectors, collaborate to ease workload and create innovative and progressive ideas, we may find new avenues to create integral and meaningful change for mental health in Aotearoa. Imagine what we could create with inter-sector, inter-community and inter-group collaboration and thinking. 

Collaboration and intergrated support isn’t a new concept... But we have the ability to use it in innovative ways for the benefit of ourselves, our friends, our whānau, our communities and our generations to come. 

So, I’m laying the question on the table– what can you and your community do to integrate, support and create collaborations with other groups, communities and sectors?