Last month we highlighted Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) as one of the 7 Social Causes our Club is supporting this year.

 

According to a UNICEF report, New Zealand has the highest rate of teenage suicides across all OECD countries. Our Club's CAMH efforts are focused on supporting positive change by funding programmes that give clinicians access to best practice solutions to help with their diagnosis and treatment. 

 

Our guest speakers Professor Dr. Sally Merry (Cure Kids Duke Family Chair in Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the Head of Department of Psychological Medicine) and her team of doctors and researchers (Senior Lecturer Karolina Stasiak, Associate Professor Sarah Hetrick, and Senior Lecturer Hiran Thabrew in photo below) shared with us the history of how Downtown Rotary and University of Auckland came to be partners in this area. They also highlighted some of the great work they are doing to help battle and prevent teenage depression and mental health concerns.

 

Our Club was instrumental in providing the initial funding support for a Research Fellow in 2011. Since then it has grown into a much broader network of experts who have been able to share their knowledge with others in the field and across the world. 

 

 

 

The CAMH team have researched and developed several emotional wellbeing tools that they have been gamified and put online for young people to use. These games incorporate cognitive behavioural therapy and positive psychology elements and are meant to help youth change their negative mindset to a positive one. 

 

 

The CAMH team are also developing a network to connect practitioners and with researchers in order to provide more effective solutions to young people in need. Stay tuned for more information from our Champion Graham Hendry as progress continues into 2019.

 

Speaking of Champions, please make sure to attend our upcoming Annual General Meeting on 4th December during our normal breakfast meeting time. The formal proceedings will only be a short part of the meeting. The remainder of the time will be for our Champions to share highlights with us about the status of our causes and the plan for the remainder of the year.

 

As mentioned earlier, we have postponed our fundraising dinner to sometime next year. As such, we will have our normal breakfast meeting next week on 20th November. Our guest speaker will be Sally Ann Fletcher from ShelterBox.

 

For those of you who may be disappointed about our fundraiser, there still is an opportunity to hear Nadia Lim speak next week. Paperplus and The Northern Club have arranged a cocktail and canapés session with Nadia from 6-8pm on the 21st November where $10 from each ticket ($47.50 per person) will go to KiwiHarvest. Please contact the Northern Club or Paperplus for tickets. 

 

Finally, a correction to last week's Noticeboard, the amount of funds raised from the Melbourne Cup is $1500 in total (which includes the raffle proceeds of $360). 

 

Have a great week everyone & see you next Tuesday!

 

Lucy