6 minute read
Walk for Wellness: A Mental Health OT Initiative to Foster Recovery and Optimise Well-being
Laura Kagan, (OTR) BPsychSc, MOTPrac Mental Health Occupational Therapist, Luna Therapy
One of the key principles of Luna Therapy is ‘Recovery through Connection’. We embody the belief that for people to experience sustainable recovery, they need support to establish a connection with their sense of self, connection with other people, connection with their communities, connection with nature, and connection with their unique values, cultural beliefs, and truths.
Modern Life + Pandemic = Sympathetic Nervous System Overload
The collective mental health has taken a massive hit over the past year. It has been crystal clear that more and more people have been struggling–and disconnection and the stress of modern life play a major part.
Modern life involves an immense level of isolation and loneliness. Many people have lost their villages of support, are overstimulated, and experience sensory overwhelm daily. Most of the time they are operating from the sympathetic state of their nervous system. It’s overwhelming just thinking about it, let alone living it. One of the most apparent, worrying, and ongoing casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the collective mental health. The ongoing stress, uncertainty, disempowerment, survival threat, and fear that the pandemic created was unmanageable and catastrophic for many people’s nervous systems and well-being. The pandemic’s impact has significantly contributed to increased global mental-health problems and immense difficulty securing mental-health support. Mental-health practitioners are also experiencing burnout, mental-health problems, and illness themselves. The world can no longer ignore that globally, mentalhealth systems and support processes are not working to effectively support people with mental illness in the way that they need to foster sustainable recovery and engagement in meaningful living. In many ways, mental illness is the pandemic we need to focus our energy and attention on.
Recovery Is Possible
Recovery frameworks in mental health are based on holistic, trauma-informed and person-centred approaches.
Recovery frameworks are based on two clear principles:
1. It is possible to recover from a mental-health illness 2. The most effective recovery is when the client drives it. Luna Therapy is an integrative outreach mental-health occupational therapy service on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. Like many other occupational therapists, we have experienced increased demand for services during this time, and challenges supporting and discharging clients and families as the support they need is intensive and cyclical. I was incredibly alarmed when I, a mental-health occupational therapist with knowledge, experience, and stable mental health to navigate the process, could not find a psychologist or fellow mental-health occupational therapist with availability for new referrals. I contacted many different mental-health services and was told many had closed wait lists or had a wait list of six months or more. Simply put, we do not have available mental-health services to meet the desperate demands of our community. There has been an immense increase in people needing mental-health support over the past year. How can mental-health services support them towards the best chance at recovery when we are all at capacity and unable to refer them elsewhere?
When people experiencing mental-health problems and emotional distress don’t get the support they need, they are not the only ones adversely impacted. Family structure, employment duties, physical health and well-being, along with the ease and flow of a cohesive, productive, engaged, and healthy community are heavily affected.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System delivered its final report in March 2021. As stated on the health.gov website, “there are 65 recommendations in the Final Report, in addition to the nine recommendations in the Interim Report”.
The Royal Commission’s recommendations set out a ten-year vision for a rebalanced system in which mental-health and well-being treatment, care, and support are provided in the community, hospital, and other residential settings. It seeks to rebuild the system from the ground up, with communities at the centre.
These reforms aim to rebalance the system so that more services will be delivered in community settings, and extend beyond an acute-health response to a more holistic approach to good mental health and well-being across the community.
Recommendations are grouped around four key features of the future mentalhealth and well-being system:
1. A responsive and integrated system with community at its heart 2. A system attuned to promoting inclusion and addressing inequities 3. Re-established confidence through prioritisation and collaboration 4. Contemporary and adaptable services.
This is fantastic for our mental-health system’s future. However, what do we do now while we wait for these recommendations to be actioned and the paradigm to shift?
We do the best we can, with what we know, and the resources we have. From Theory to Practice, Introducing Our New Offering–Walk for Wellness
Walk for Wellness is Luna Therapy’s way of offering a genuine commitment to mentalhealth support that encompasses so much of what we know with the resources available at this time. Mental-health services are at capacity, and many people are struggling to find the connection, support, and services they need. It will take time for the Royal Commission’s recommendations to create the vital change that the Victorian mental-health system has been identified to desperately need.
Walk for Wellness is a free, weekly, women’s walking, mindfulness, and social group facilitated by a mental-health occupational therapist (currently me, Laura Kagan). It is designed to be flexible and accessible, driven by recovery frameworks, naturebased therapy frameworks, mindfulness, movement and exercise, yogic philosophies, and trauma-sensitive approaches.
The offering is simple, and there are no expectations. It is an offering we have birthed and are nurturing. If it grows to address the need we have identified, we will continue to facilitate it. However, we are aware it may not be hitting the mark, and are therefore endlessly open and curious to adapt and explore other options to do our small part to create the change we wish to see in the world.
The group aims to create opportunities for well-being routine, connection, new villages of support to be nurtured, and dedicated time for cultivating physical, mental, energetic, and emotional health and well-being. We must provide opportunities that support people to build sustainable well-being from the ground up, fostering a connection with self and others. This includes dedicated time in nature, opportunities to learn about trauma, stress, nervous-system balance and regulation, and engaging with activities that bring joy and meaning.
Part of the Walk for Wellness social group’s beauty is that this time is energetically, emotionally, and physically protected each week. Regardless of whether ten people attend or none, this time is precious and available to at least our occupational therapist running the group, who will still immerse herself in nature, walk, grab a coffee, and spend time mindfully and intentionally with herself, genuinely embodying the offering’s intentions. We chose a central peninsula location in Mount Martha for the group. It has terrific options for walking and mindfulness (beach on one side, estuary boardwalk on other, cafes, park, flat street walking, etc) and addresses some of the potential barriers to those wanting to attend. However, we are also aware that many people experience barriers to accessing health-care support, and addressing how we advertise this offering and enable its sustainability is a work in progress.
Finding a balance and creating a service that supports women who seek this mental-health support on the peninsula is deeply important to us. We are confident we will continue to evolve this offering, and empower the connection needed to support women to recover and thrive. About the Author Laura Kagan is a mentalhealth occupational therapist and hatha yoga student/teacher who founded Luna Therapy, an integrative mentalhealth service on the Mornington Peninsula in 2018. Laura believes each person’s physical, psychological, and spiritual path to healing is unique to them, and that life can be transformed through deep connection to self-awareness. Laura has a special interest and passion for women’s mental health and well-being, honouring rites of passage, and empowering women through self-discovery and connection to self and community. If you would like to connect, engage, or ask any questions, please reach out to laura@lunatherapy. com.au or visit www.lunatherapy.com.au
References The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Retrieved 10 April 2021 from https://finalreport. rcvmhs.vic.gov.au/
