Collaborative leadership group
We are currently looking to establish a collaborative leadership group. The intent of this group is to provide strategic oversight, obtain funding, and expand the influence and impact of the collaborative. Our call for expressions of interest has now closed, and we are in the process of reviewing all applicants.
The backbone team
The Equally Well backbone team facilitates and supports regional, national, and international activity. It is made up of people from Te Pou, Platform and Ember. We engage and collaborate regularly to maintain overall strategic coherence, and coordinate and manage the day-to-day operations and implementation of work, including stakeholder engagement, communications, data collection and analysis, and other responsibilities.
Abigail Freeland
Policy Lead
Email: abigail@platform.org.nz
I am extremely lucky to be involved in the Equally Well backbone team and be able to support system-level changes with physical health equity for tāngata whaiora (people seeking wellness). I have a particular passion for removing stigma, discrimination and bias within health services. My day job is at Platform Trust, supporting mental health and addiction NGO and community organisations’ to thrive.
Yossie Salcedo
Project Coordinator
Email:yoselyn.Salcedo@tepou.co.nz
I am a project coordinator at Te Pou, and part of my role involves coordination for the Equally Well backbone team and wider collaborative. I’m very passionate about social strategies and mental health, especially focused on vulnerable communities.
Simon Kozak
Communication and Marketing Lead
Email: simon.kozak@ember.org.nz
I manage Equally Well’s, communications, marketing and media . By day I am fully employed by NGO Ember Korowai Takitini as Group Marketing Manager. My career spans over 30 years, much of it spent in senior leadership roles with well-known advertising agencies. I haven’t had a drink for over ten years, I like to describe my lived experience and opportunity to deploy my professional talents with Equally Well and Ember as “a happy collision”.
Tui Taurua
Māori and Lived Experience Lead
Email: tui.taurua@gmail.com
Ko Maatatua toku waka
Ko Pouerua toku maunga
Ki runga te Wakaputanga raua ko Te Tiriti o Waitangi oku whenua
Ko Pewhairangi toku moana
Ko Waitangi toku awa
E noho ahau te Papakaianga o Waitangi
Ko Te Tiriti o Waitangi raua ko Hiruhama oku Marae,
Ko Ngati Rehia raua Ngati Rahiri raua Ko Ngati Kawa oku hapu
Ko Ngapuhi nui tonu
Oku Maatua Kingi Taurua toku papa raua Mate Horomoana Ashby toku Mama
Ko Tui Taurua ahau
I have twenty-eight years’ experience in the Mental Health and Tangata Whaiora (Lived Experience) Maori movement and it has been forty-six years from my first psychiatric admission. I am a strong advocate for the Tangata Whaiora Maori collective voice to lead and guide our allies / collaborators. This is a benchmark of courage and growth for all of us in this sector.
I believe it is important to advocate, support and guide Tauiwi organisations and leaders to review practices that encourage Maori reaching their optimal recovery potential. Maori must lead the way in reclaiming their tinorangatiratanga, determining their destination, their pathway. Experience suggests that using Matauranga Maori Te Ao Maori practices must be at the fore.
I can attest that learning and implementing these practices saved my life and bought me to a place of insight and confidence. My drive is to influence this transformation.
Choices … if Maori choose to access Tauiwi organisations /services it is necessary these organisations understand how to keep us safe, and how to support us to reach our potential as expected by our Tupuna / Ancestors.
These are the reasons for their signing our founding documents, He Wakaputanga raua me Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Its not only about “true” partnership “nothing for us without us” but it also ensures we are around the discussion table. This is the essence of the whakatauaki “Puta Hua te Rere o Te Wai”.
I am happy to be the front Tangata Whaiora Maori lead, to work in the Equally Well, Nga Waka o Matariki, Back Bone Team space.
To conclude, I encourage Tangata Whaiora who may want to explore all possibilities that will encourage change, to contact me. I am always ready to listen.
Nga mihi mahana,
Tui Taurua
Wendy Donaldson
Researcher
Email: wendy.donaldson@tepou.co.nz
I am a researcher with Te Pou and a change manager. I bring the skills from both of those roles to the Backbone team, which I have been a member of for the last six years. It is a privilege to be involved in the Equally Well movement as it’s so important for us to bring about changes to address physical health equity.
Our partners
Equally Well Aotearoa is a collaborative of more than 100 organisations taking action to support physical health equity for people with mental health and addiction issues. The organisation sit across the health, mental health, addiction and social care sectors. You can find a full list of endorsing organisations here.
Alongside the organisations, we have a number of dedicated champions, or advocates, who come from a range of backgrounds. This includes lived experience, whānau, academic, policy, general practice, nursing, psychiatry, support work, public health, pharmacy, and cardiology backgrounds.
Keep an eye on this space as each month we will be spotlighting a different partner organisation or individual champion in the collaborative!
