New South Island Crisis Recovery Café Opens in Dunedin for Mental Health Support

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey has today announced the second South Island Crisis Recovery Café will open in Dunedin.

Talking to people with lived experience, the feedback has been clear. Sitting in a brightly lit, busy emergency department is not the best environment to be in when in mental distress. That’s why we are rolling out Crisis Cafés across the country, which offer an alternative calm, peer-led, non-clinical space to go to for support, Mr Doocey says.

Not only do these cafés provide people experiencing mental health or addiction challenges with a safe place to go, but they also better connect people with community services.

We know wraparound support is so important, so having someone who can help refer people on to long-term support can make a real difference and help people feel less overwhelmed by the process.

Communities know what works best for them. That’s why I have always said the solutions already exist within our community organisations, they just need the opportunity be backed. Otago Mental Health Support Trust is a good example of this, having been a trusted provider with nearly 40 years’ experience working in the community.

Now they will be running the café and reaching even more people in need. The café will be peer-led, with support provided by people who have lived experience of mental distress and recovery.

The café will be operating from two sites in both South Dunedin and Northeast Valley. The service will operate across the two sites for 16 hours per week. The first night of seeing people in the Café will be this Saturday at the North East Valley site from 5:30pm until 10:00pm.

It has been heartening to hear the positive feedback about the peer support roles. One that has stayed with me was a worker reflecting on her own experience, she told me peer support services are exactly what she wishes she had when she was struggling, someone who can say, I see you, I hear you, I know what you’re going through.

That’s exactly why we are better utilising peer support workers in a range of settings, including emergency departments, eating disorder services, and inpatient settings.

Crisis cafés form part of our mental health plan. Just recently I announced a crisis response package that includes more clinical workers in crisis assessment teams, new peer-led acute alternative services, and additional peer support workers in emergency departments and crisis recovery cafés.

We’re delivering faster access to support, more frontline workers, and a better crisis response.

Notes to editors: The North East Valley site will be operating from 5.30pm to 10.00pm on Saturdays and Tuesdays from 28 April.

The second site in South Dunedin is scheduled for opening on the second week of May, and will be open Tuesday and Saturdays, 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm.

For further information on the Café, including locations and timings visit here.