MH101 > Testimonials > Melissa Moon on MH101

Melissa Moon on MH101

Seeing the bigger picture...

If mental resilience had a poster girl, it would be star athlete Melissa Moon. Whether charging up the stairs of the world’s tallest buildings, or battling through the heat of the Mojave Desert as one of 20 runners completing the 15200-mile Blue Planet Run global relay, she digs deep to find the mental strength needed to complement her physical abilities. But the mental toughness is tempered by the other side of Melissa Moon, the side that has seen her volunteer at Wellington’s Compassion Centre Soup Kitchen for eight years. It was this work that led her to complete the MH101 workshop in December 2009.

“Community is an important part of my life and I am committed to my work at the Compassion Centre,” says Melissa. “Our team’s mission is to ‘support people in need to live with dignity in the community’. We work with those on the margins of society. Mental illness is common among them – but so, I have learned, is a spirit of endurance.”

For Melissa, the MH101 workshop offered the opportunity to build on her already considerable knowledge of mental health issues: she has completed psychology papers at university and has ‘on the job’ experience at the soup kitchen.

“The MH101 workshop was great, because it reinforced much of what I had already learned, but added a new dimension of personal experience to it,” says Melissa. “Having a facilitator with experience of mental illness made it all so credible – if you’ve been there yourself you truly, truly have that extra understanding.

“I felt endeared toward the facilitator, who had worked through their experience of mental illness and was using that in a positive way, to help and guide others.”

Melissa – who works as a motivational speaker herself – believes that personal stories are always a highlight of training. “We all deal with things in different ways,” says Melissa. “Having someone say ‘this was the situation I encountered and this is what I did’ is really powerful. It gives you ideas on how to work with people to get the best out of them.”

In her day to day work at the soup kitchen, Melissa says she is constantly reminded of how vulnerable the people she works with really are – and how anyone trying to help needs to look at the bigger picture, instead of focussing on immediate behaviour.

“One incident can be the result of years of pent-up frustration,” says Melissa. “The key message that I got out of MH101 was to try to see the bigger picture and don’t respond negatively. Respond in a calm way, letting them know you understand that what they’re experiencing at the time is their reality.”

Melissa has no hesitation in recommending the MH101 course to others.

“Education is so important to understanding,” she says. “The course taught good practical skills too, but it’s the overall education experience that is so powerful.

“MH101 encourages people to stop and reflect. We need to do that more. Walking alongside street people, I see how much they get judged in their day to day lives. I believe that we all need education to be able to move past judgement, respond positively and assist wherever we can.”

For more on Melissa Moon’s inspirational approach to life, visit:

www.blueplanetnetwork.org/run
Melissa was one of 20 runners who took part in the 2007 Blue Planet Run global relay, covering 15200 miles in 95 days to raise awareness of the critical importance of clean drinking water.

www.compassioncentre.org
Melissa is a long-term volunteer at the Wellington Soup Kitchen, which has been run by the Sisters of Compassion since 1899. Today it still provides around 70 meals a day to Wellington’s street people.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAeTTG2r434
Melissa speaking for five action-packed minutes on life, the universe and mental resilience at an Ignite Wellington event.

www.melissamoon.co.nz
Melissa’s own website. Includes training guides as well as information on her motivational speaking.

You can also download this story as a printable PDF (PDF, 258KB).

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    It's not unusual...

    Nearly 47% of New Zealanders experience mental illness at some stage in their lives. When ongoing stress leads to an experience of mental illness, the ability of both ourselves and others to recognise the signs and symptoms early ensures the appropriate support can be offered.

    Mental distress can present itself in many different ways, including in physical, spiritual, behavioural or emotional dimensions. The symptoms will be different according to the type of illness, but the most important thing to remember is that mental illness has equal capacity to either enhance or disturb people's lives.

    With the right support from friends, family and colleagues, the amount of disturbance can be minimised. On the other hand, the courage, hope and strength that living with mental illness requires often enhances the ability of people to live well and hold valued roles within their whanau and communities.

    Being able to recognise good mental health and what we can do to maintain it is important to everyone.

    More...
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    Stand in their shoes...

    The ability to relate to people experiencing mental distress or mental illness is paramount if you are going to respond appropriately. Knowing how your reactions can impact on the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of others can make all the difference.

    We all have individual beliefs and thoughts about situations we are faced with. Often these are automatic and occur before we've even had time to process them. It's important that we learn how to take the time to stop and think about how these thoughts and feelings may impact on another person. Doing this also gives us time to appreciate what might be going on for the other person.

    Relating to the experience of mental illness often means standing in the shoes of another and empathising with their experience. Acknowledging the person as an individual who, despite a change in behaviours and thoughts, is still the same person in the first step to maintaining a relationship with them.

    To read more about the experiences of those affected by mentall illness check out these stories on Like Minds, Like Mine and The Lowdown.

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    Your response counts

    Be professional. Be polite. Tell the truth.

    When people are experiencing distress, more often than not, it's the simple things that you can do that make a difference. If someone needs help and you're not sure what to do, just ask. Here are some ways of 'being':

    • be genuine
    • be compassionate
    • be respectful
    • be kind
    • be gentle
    • be a friend.

    Sometimes things like making a cup of tea, offering to put on a load of washing, helping a colleague finish a large report or babysitting your brother's kids for the night can make the difference. Other ways of helping could include finding an understanding GP or giving an obviously stressed client help to fill in some forms. Just taking the time to provide some help and support shows someone they're not alone. If you need more help, you can also seek a professional response.

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