![]() They reflect disturbing and outdated bio-medical thinking. His comments are a sad and ill-informed weaponising of Ms Allan’s distress for political gain. If clinical sign-off was applied to all politicians as National leader Christopher Luxon suggests, I suspect parliament would be half empty half the time – because politicians are human too. What we all need is compassion from each other, support where we work, play, learn and live, and sometimes, clinical input. Life is messy, many decisions are hard and sometimes we all make mistakes – you can’t take that risk away by applying a medical model to emotions and giving the power to some expert in a “white coat”. In every workplace, in every school and every whānau there are people experiencing mental distress. Suggesting clinicians should have the sign-off is stigmatising and dehumanising and not what people need – it’s saying if you’re going through a tough time, you’re too broken to make decisions for yourself. But you can’t take that judgment call away by kicking the decision to clinicians – not in the vast majority of situations. When to engage with work can be a hard judgment call for the individual and for their boss. Work can be a helpful anchor that supports our recovery, provided the stress is well managed. Everyone will have times when they are not mentally and emotionally at their best and what we need at those times will vary. Kiri Allan in January 2023 (Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)ĭid Allan come back to work too soon? There is no right or wrong answer to that. That’s fair, and now the focus should be on her wellbeing. ![]() She has made some mistakes and she is taking the consequences for those mistakes. Kiri Allan is a high performer who had an impressive week prior to Sunday night, at the same time as continuing to manage the challenges of her mental and emotional situation. I, and anyone else with mental health issues, can still be highly productive. When I make mistakes it’s because I’m human and fallible, not because my mental health makes me a less able person. As a CEO I would be devastated if I made a mistake and people let me off because of my bipolar – it would be saying “we can’t expect high performance of him because he has mental health issues”. Not holding Allan accountable is in fact stigmatising mental distress – especially for people who manage long-term mental illness. We can have compassion and provide support and still hold her to a high standard of behaviour. It is right that she resigned as minister of justice and that she faces legal consequences. If we are honest, all of us are affected at some point.īut that support and empathy does not excuse Allan for her actions. And when anyone is going through a tough time like that, they need our empathy and support, and sometimes they will need formal mental health services. In fact, over 80% of us will experience a period of significant mental distress through the course of our lives, many due to life events. This is part of being human and a natural reaction to life challenges – we mustn’t pathologise normal emotional responses. Anybody in that situation would experience considerable stress, mental distress and a time of poor mental health. Kiri Allan has been in an extremely high-stress job, and she has recently faced big personal challenges – all in the public spotlight. As the CEO of the Mental Health Foundation and someone who lives with bipolar disorder, here are my whakaaro. There is confusion, stigma and empathy mashed into the public story. It has exposed difficulties New Zealanders have talking about mental health and responding to a person’s actions in the context of their mental state. Her car accident, arrest and resignation as a cabinet minister has been enmeshed with references to her mental health and distress. ![]() Figuring out how to respond to a person’s actions in the context of their mental state can be difficult, but empathy and accountability should go hand in hand, writes Mental Health Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson.Įmpathy and accountability should go hand in hand as we respond to the very difficult events surrounding Kiri Allan. ![]()
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