A free service that can be accessed via your family doctor or nurse. Wellness Support is about helping you feel better spiritually, emotionally and mentally. Feeling anxious, having trouble sleeping or feeling stuck can have huge effects on life and on your whaanau. Wellness Support is a service that can support you to move forward.

Wellness Support involves time with your nurse or family doctor. They will spend up to 30 minutes with you, focusing on how to help you feel better. Some people find one session is enough; others come back for more sessions. There are a number of ways in which Wellness Support can assist you with problems including depression, anxiety and addiction. Wellness Support can help you with: 1. Understanding your body Understand what is happening in your body and the reason you are feeling the way you are. It can include discussion about what the fight/flight/freeze response is, and how it changes your body with increased stress hormones called adrenaline and cortisol. 2. Understanding your behaviour Have you noticed that when you feel bad you stop wanting to do things you usually do? This is extremely common, but one of the things that has the biggest impact on improving how people feel is finding ways to get back into work or social activities. An important part of this can be connecting with your community, spirituality or religion. 3. Learning how to solve problems Sometimes the cause of mental health problems can be feeling stuck. This could be caused by financial, work or whaanau problems. We can help you move things forward with the problem and your health. 4. Learning how to get better sleep Sleep is hugely important to our mood and wellbeing. Understanding how sleep cycles work includes understanding ways to increase the sleep hormone (melatonin), by, for example, getting morning daylight and no screens two hours before bed. Having good “sleep hygiene” is important (for example, no clocks in the bedroom, same time to wake and a routine before bed). Sometimes sleep medication can be used in the short term. 5. Knowing how to keep yourself safe A safety plan includes knowing what to do if thoughts of harming yourself become a problem. It includes ways you can change these thoughts and how to keep yourself safe. It usually works best if you share it with someone who can support you. A blank personal safety plan can be found here - Personal Safety Plan. 6. Using medication when necessary Anti-depressant medication (SSRIs) can help if the problem is severe, particularly severe depression. Unfortunately, medication alone is unlikely to help you get well and stay well long term, that’s why it will be used in combination with the other approaches above. Medication has benefits and side effects; your doctor or nurse can decide with you if they are right for you. 7. Accessing other support When needed, your doctor and nurse will work with a wider team that can include community and hospital support to ensure you get the best care.

Call your family doctor and ask to be booked for a Wellness Support appointment. These sessions are usually around 30 minutes long.