New Zealand MindBody Trust web-based 'whole person' resources for healthworkers and their patients and clients

$6,700 of $9,000 goal

Given by 36 generous donors in 9 weeks

The NZ MindBody Trust web-based project to support and educate clinicians and patients in a 'whole person' approach to chronic illness.

Auckland

The NZ MindBody Trust (2004) is concerned with 'whole person' and person-centred approaches to health and illness, and especially the important roles that emotional, social, spiritual, and cultural aspects of human experience play in the development of illness and disease.

The Trust has promoted and supported the 'whole person' approach to illness and disease by running conferences for clinicians, and over the last few years regular MindBody Teaching Days in Auckland.

It is informally linked with the post-graduate program in MindBody Healthcare at AUT University, Auckland, in which many clinicians of all disciplines have trained. All the Trustees have been associated with this University program, and have a passion for broadening modern approaches to health delivery by offering attention to the emotional, social, spiritual, and cultural factors in illness development.

The Trust is now focused on reaching out to help both New Zealand and international clinicians and the many people struggling with chronic disorders that are difficult to treat, or where the treatments are ineffective and/or result in unacceptable side-effects. It is clear that 'whole person' approaches can have powerful benefits in these areas, but unfortunately throughout New Zealand, and internationally, clinicians and patients do not have access to resources that are helpful. We get constant requests for information resources and training.

Our new venture will provide an excellent, easy-to-navigate, and free-to-use website with 'pathways' customized for clinicians and for patients/clients, thus providing information, education, resources and suggestions for skills which are otherwise very hard to access.

These resources will include: illustrative patient stories; clinician stories of their experiences, difficulties, and rewards in gradually changing their practices, and how to do this; short smart-phone- accessible skills descriptions; crisp FAQ material enabling patients and clinicians to grasp the concepts of 'whole person' approach to disease and who it applies to; longer analytical articles; a scientific archive and bibliography; blogs by experienced 'whole person' clinicians etc. Readers will be able to make contact with the site manager. The content will be clear, rigorous, professional, warm in tone, and balanced.

The project has two essential purposes. The first is to help clinicians. For example, some struggle to talk about 'mind' and 'body' connections with patients/clients in the real world of the consulting room. The site will address the many skills issues raised by clinicians. Clinicians will be able to direct their clients/patients to the website to reflect upon intelligent well-written material, between, before, or after consultations to add to whatever the clinician has raised already. It will also be a place clinicians can go to quickly, or at leisure, to answer the many ‘what do I do now?’ questions, or to ponder on deeper theoretical issues. There will be zones dedicated to individual healthcare disciplines, because all of the professions have their unique needs and difficulties when it comes to working in a 'whole person' way.

The second core purpose is to help patients begin a journey through and out of their illnesses by offering a re-orientation to new possibilities via a new understanding of the relationships between their illness and their life experience.

A great deal of written material has accumulated over the last 10 years and this will be very useful to patients and clinicians, and can be gradually formatted and uploaded.

The NZ MindBody Trust has $6000 as a start-up fund for the project. The cost estimate for development is $13,000. As a buffer for over-runs and for support costs in the early phases after launching we are aiming for a total of $15,000. So we are aiming for $9000 on Give-a-Little.

We will put in the time and effort on a volunteer basis but we need help with funding.

If many clinicians, and patients/clients too (where appropriate) would Give-a-Little we will be able to do it!

In anticipation, thank you for your help.

The NZ MindBody Trustees

New Zealand MindBody Trust's involvement (page creator)

My name is Brian Broom. I am a specialist physician and psychotherapist. I have long been associated with the development of the MindBody or 'whole person' and person-centred approach to physical illness in New Zealand. I have developed formal University MindBody training for clinicians. I am one of 7 Trustees of the NZ MindBody Trust.

We have unanimously decided that our next major focus will be the development of free resources for clinicians and patients to access from the web. I have written the Give-a-Little content and it has been reviewed and approved by fellow trustees for their approval. This is a non-profit venture.

About us

The NZ MindBody Trust (2004) is concerned with the important emotional, social, spiritual, and cultural aspects of human experience and their role in the development of illness and disease. It has promoted and supported a 'whole person' approach to illness and disease by running conferences for clinicians, and regular MindBody Teaching Days in Auckland. It is informally linked with the post-graduate program in MindBody Healthcare at AUT University, Auckland, in which many clinicians of all healthcare disciplines have trained.

The Trust is now focused on reaching out to help New Zealand and international clinicians and the many people struggling with chronic disorders that are difficult to treat or where the treatments are ineffective or result in unacceptable side-effects. It is clear that 'whole person' approaches can have powerful benefits in these areas, but it is clear that throughout New Zealand, and internationally, clinicians and patients have very little access to resources that are helpful in doing this work.

To redress this, our new venture will provide a sophisticated, easy-to-navigate, and free-to-use website with 'pathways' customised for both patients/clients and clinicians providing information, education, resources and skills which are otherwise very hard to access. These will include patient stories, clinician stories, short smart-phone accessible skills material, short focused FAQ material enabling patients and clinicians to grasp the concepts and practice of the 'whole person' approach to disease and who it applies to, longer analytical articles, a scientific archive and bibliography, blog etc.

The core purpose is to help patients begin a journey through and out of their illnesses by understanding and re-orientation to new possibilities, and to help clinicians who struggle to talk about these things with patients to learn how to do this in the real world of the consulting room.

It will be a place that clinicians can direct their clients/patients to, to reflect upon, between, before, or after sessions. It will also be a place clinicians go to find answers to their ‘what do I do now?’ questions. There will be sub-pathways dedicated to individual healthcare disciplines.

A great deal of material has accumulated over the last 10 years that will be very useful to patients and clinicians, and can be gradually formatted and uploaded.

The MindBody Trust has $6,500 as a start-up fund but the cost estimate for the project is $13,000. If we achieved substantially more than the extra $6,500 needed then we could consider putting the Illness Explorer self-help pathway on the site. This useful tool is already constructed but needs modernising for current digital platforms.

We will put in the volunteer, unpaid time to make this happen, but we need help with the funding. If many clinicians (and patients too) would Give-a-Little we will be able to do it!

If you are a sufferer with a chronic disease it will help you help yourself. If you are a clinician it will help you help your patients/clients.

Latest update

The Give-A-Little Campaign Result 12 July 2016

The MindBody Trustees want to thank you all for your help. We achieved $6700, which, added to the $6000 already available, takes us a little above the $12000 needed to get the site constructed and up and running. This is well under way now, and we have a web developer who is not only trained in whole person approaches but will also include the Illness Explorer Self-help Pathway for this cost. The IE Pathway was charitably funded ($20,000) about 12 years ago, was waiting for a site like this, and will provide an excellent tool for patients as well as an educative pathway for clinicians who are looking for ways to explain 'whole person' approaches to illness. There is a lot of clinician content to develop and this will appear gradually. I am not sure exactly when it will go live online. I suspect it will be October/November 2016. Once this Give-a-Little page is closed I am unsure whether we will be able to email you all to notify you. In case we cannot, the web address will be www.wholeperson.healthcare. (There is no co, or nz, or com). Please feel free to contact me at bandabroom@xtra.co.nz to ascertain progress or to make suggestions as to what you feel would be helpful content.

Again, with our grateful thanks, and hopefully many of you will find significant use for the resource.

Best wishes

Brian Broom on behalf of MindBody Trustees

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