Lizard News SEPTEMBER 2023
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Te Puna • Whakamārama • Matakana Is • Ōmokoroa • Pahoia • Apata • Aongatete • Katikati • Tahāwai • Bowentown • Athenree • Waihī Beach
Your mental health not ok? By Matthew Farrell OKBRO? Your mental health not ok? Come and have a yarn. In recent months, locals in Te Puna and elsewhere have noticed a colourful car parked up, with a sign offering the most basic human need. Conversation. The driver, in more ways than one, is registered social worker Scott Harvey. He’s on a mission to meet head-on what he says is a growing demand for mental health support in the community. “My goal is for my car to be there every Saturday or Sunday at Māramatanga Park, depending on the season. I just talk to people about their mental health, their anything and everything. “I have people come along and say ‘what’s this about boy’, especially old fellas on their push bikes. I say I’m making sure everybody is ok - how are you? One old guy said, ‘I’m fine. I’m old school.’ How’s your family? ‘My wife’s dying, she’s got three months to live.’ How are you, mate? He burst out crying. 45 mins later, I have talked to him about it. I’m just a random person with two seats, helping people open up in a different way, a holistic way.” Te Tuinga Whānau welcomes people of all ethnicities with short and long-term social support. Everything from advice and advocacy to professional mentoring and transitional housing options. And potentially life-saving roadside chats. TTW translates as ‘weaving family
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(and community) together’. Chief Imagination Officer Tommy Wilson says Scott is walking the talk that needs to be spoken. “We must take the solutions to those that need it most, not wait for them to come at the last minute to get help. Scotty is a mobile crisis centre, especially for at-risk youth with mental health and addiction issues. They feel comfortable sitting under a tree at Māramatanga Park to open up. “We are seeing some amazing results for taking that approach, meeting the crisis before it gets past the tipping point. Most times, people just want to kōrero because they can’t deal with challenges on their own. Nobody wants to fly solo, so Scotty flies with them,” says Tommy. Scott is currently preparing for a major road trip at Christmas time.
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“I want to go Tauranga to Bluff and back in my car and trailer. Between here and the South Island and back, doing what I do in Te Puna. Pull over on the side of the road somewhere I have never been with my two signs and two seats and let people drive past. They’ll either give a big smile or pull over and ask what it’s about,” says Scott. The car registration plate and relatable vehicle messages are his conversation starters. “I’ve looked in my rearview mirror and seen them saying, ‘You OK, bro?’ so I don’t have to engage everyone; they are already starting to talk about it.” “I was at Bayfair when I saw a gentleman standing looking at the writing on the bonnet, and he said, ‘This is amazing. I wish my son had seen it; he suicided last year’. We spoke for 20 minutes. “I said, ‘If you need support, come and see me at Te Tuinga Whānau. I can help you, mate. We have a Tāne group, and I’m there if you ever need me’. He said, ‘I have family and the right support, but thank you’. “If it had been a normal car, I would have never met the man or had that conversation where he told me things you wouldn’t normally tell a stranger. “I randomly ask people, ‘Are you ok? How’s your day going?’ Maybe today’s fine. How was their week at work? Some workers have a manager who is an arse. Maybe they are getting bullied and need some social work advice to give a go at work next week.” I decide to turn the tables and ask Scott how he is doing. How is your boss, the shepherd? “Tommy is a guy that cares. He wants people to see and feel hope, whatever that is to them. I have an amazing manager, Piki Russell, who supports our work with up to 100 people a month. It’s everything from homelessness to addiction, gambling, domestic violence issues, sexual abuse, and anxiety; everything society hands out to people. “It fills my cup to know that people find hope with us. We have a tree out the
back of the office with a table and chair. We sit out there for a cuppa, smoko, a bitch and moan, and a debrief. “As I’m talking to you on the phone, seven people are looking at my car now. A hundred people have written names all over my car of people who have passed. “Their messages say ‘Keep Alive, Don’t Die, You Are Loved,’ and I’m going to take all the names and messages on holiday with me to Bluff in December.” Scott would like to run a social work bus in 2024 for farmers grappling with suicide. “We need to get out of the office and go to the people in isolated areas. Listening to the ZB show, the farmers on the East Coast have massive mental health needs,” he says. Scott has a UOKBRO givealittle page to accept donations for his kaupapa/ cause.