Canterbury Wellbeing Advisory Group

Wellbeing Advisory Groups are set up in response to significant events where there may be substantial wellbeing issues for the affected community.

Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference for the NZCRS Canterbury Wellbeing Advisory Group

Members

The Canterbury Wellbeing Advisory Group is an extension of the existing All-of-Government psycho-social committee that was formed after the 2010-2011 earthquakes. It provides feedback and advice to the NZCRS on wellbeing issues.

Latest meeting minutes – 22 August 2023

Present

Lucy D’Aeth (Chair), Tom McBrearty (Chair, CHOAG), Nathan Davis (Pathways)

In attendance

Darren Wright (Director, NZCRS), Kirsty Hamilton (Principal Advisor, NZCRS)

Apologies

Jackie Moore (Wellbeing Support), Franziska Kerdemelidis (Pathways)

Meeting administration

Conflicts of interest

  1. No new conflicts of interest arose.

Items 

NZCRS Operational

  1. The Director spoke to his July 2023 NZCRS Director’s Report. Discussion followed. 
  2. A resourcing update was provided with staff relocating and their roles being backfilled. 
  3. Satisfaction survey data was discussed with the results remaining strong.
  4. The upcoming marketing campaign was discussed in relation to the anticipated demand and that this would tie in with additional resourcing in the team.
  5. Wellbeing support outside of Canterbury was discussed with the group noting the need for bespoke services to be delivered in the Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay regions.
  6. Wellbeing resources on the NZCRS website were discussed with further content to be developed.
  7. Nationalising the Wellbeing Advisory Group was discussed with the goal of having this achieved by March 2024 agreed. The group would need to determine what this will look like, who might sit on this group and how we would respond to events with more hands-on wellbeing support being provided.

NZCRS workplace wellbeing

  1. The Director spoke to this in Jackie Moore’s absence. 
  2. Staff have completed a refresher course on trauma informed practice and new staff have completed this module also.
  3. Expanding the services to all staff was discussed given the team are now geographically spread.

Pathways update

  1. Pathways have noted common themes resulting in a spike in demand with cost of living pressures, social factors and general uncertainty. 
  2. Contractual matters were discussed with the NZCRS looking to extend wellbeing support nationally.
  3. The Chair requested data on the age of clients Pathways are supporting and the group noted it being too soon to determine the impact outside of the Canterbury Earthquakes space.
  4. The skills of the staff were discussed with the group agreeing the knowledge needs to be shared to support others across the country.

Review of agenda

Next steps

  1. The next Advisory Committee meeting date is scheduled for 7 November 2023.

Meeting closed: 3:00pm

Reports

Since 2018, the Psychosocial Committee had worked closely with the Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service and the Public Inquiry into the Earthquake Commission and had seen how much was being done to address the needs of people affected by the insurance claims process after the Canterbury earthquakes.