Getting brain fit can help mind the gap

Ree George loves the starfish story.

“It’s about a boy walking on a beach with his father when they come across lots of starfish marooned above the tide. He starts picking them up as he walks, throwing each one back into the water.

“His Dad tells him he can’t save them all and the boy says: ‘no, but I can help some’.”

Ree sees her work as a mental health coach in the same way. She says the best surprise is when you start to lift some people, including teenagers, they end up helping themselves.

Ree is one of the first graduates of Prekure’s Advanced Certificate in Mental Health. She’s added it to her qualifications because she saw a gap in her coaching toolkit to deal with the Mums and Dads and their children, as well as individuals she comes across every day, who are dealing with metal health issues.

“I believe if we help people early, they will not have to go on the lengthy wait lists to see specialists, like psychologists and psychiatrists,” Ree says. “And their GP may not even have to prescribe drugs…”

As Julia Rucklidge, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Canterbury, told the Prekure graduates, there is a wide mental health treatment gap in New Zealand and Australia.

“That treatment gap is wide,’ she says. “You generally have to be in the severe range to get into the public health system. People in the mild, or even moderate, range are too often turned away.

“I hear stories about kids that not being ‘suicidal enough’ to get into services. There is absolutely a lack of professionals to adequately address the mental health issues that are present here.”

Professor Rucklidge, who is a mental health and nutrition researcher and co-author of ‘The Better Brain’ book, is a Prekure mental health faculty member along with Professor Grant Schofield, psychologist Sophia Dawson, Dr Catherine Crofts, Dr Ed Timings, Sonya English, Josh Darby, Paul Taylor and Lisa Burch.

Together they help deliver the university level, internationally endorsed, short course advanced certificate in mental health. It is part of Prekure’s stable of courses including health coaching that deliver lifestyle medicine and encourage early intervention.

Ree says the training has helped her shape her approach to coaching people that she has developed over the past 20 years.

“I show them that there is a mental health fitness continuum. They are somewhere on that continuum – just as they are with their physical fitness – but they can do things to improve. It is not counselling – it is about coaching and showing them skills to improve.

“It’s remarkable that once they see it in that way, that some people start to identify things that they can do like returning to a sport, or a hobby, or eating better, that will help them. I am there to encourage them.”

Ree says it’s never too late, no matter the person’s age as the brain is neuroplastic. She works with adults suffering from anxiety, stress, burnout, or are over-whelmed with life. Some lean on alcohol or substances as a crutch.

“There is a range of tools to use. It can start with a simple walk on the beach with them… it is about helping them maintain changes and being accountable to themselves. “

Ree reckons teenagers are over-loaded these days and electronics have not helped. Her first tip to parents is to get their teenagers to slow down and to eat good nutrient rich food.

Professor Rucklidge’s research has shown that what we eat effects the brain and can help with anxiety, depression and even ADHD.

Now Ree has her extra tool, she is joining “TeamYou” with Sigrid Christiansen and five other PreKure health coaches to cover Northland through to Taupo. But she says with clients already in Australia and Canada, there is no reason as to why they can’t take their practise to the world.

“There is a mental health treatment gap everywhere. COVID has made the need even greater.

“If we can help some people, just like the boy and the starfish, it’s worth it.”