Designing for Impact
At Headlight we understand that the more you know about mental health, the more you can do to protect it, support it and help others around you to look after their mental health and wellbeing.
By increasing mental health literacy in communities we will achieve the following medium term outcomes
People are managing their own mental wellbeing
People are supporting each other’s mental wellbeing
People are feeling supported by their whānau/community
People are accessing mental health support earlier
Long term outcomes of focusing on increasing mental health literacy in communities include:
Improved mental wellbeing
Improved sense of belonging
Reduced stigma and discrimination
The GoodYarn Community Pilot
The Headlight team has published a report on the innovative peer-to-peer education programme that was delivered in the Queenstown Lakes District from April 2021 to June 2022, that has proven to be a successful model for improving mental health knowledge and skills, particularly amongst hard to reach and ethnically diverse communities.
The aim of the ‘GoodYarn Community’ pilot programme was to increase mental health literacy in the Queenstown Lakes community, particularly amongst priority populations such as migrant communities, new parents and small businesses who were under increasing mental pressure following the COVID related events of 2020 – 2022.
The project was designed using an established, evidence-based mental health literacy programme called GoodYarn that is delivered in corporate and rural settings. The pilot team trialled delivering the workshops in an ethnically diverse community, including running workshops for different migrant audiences using their native language and in culturally appropriate settings to make it as effective and accessible as possible.
Completed by Anna Williams, a research consultant supported by the Lotteries Community Internship Programme, the report highlights the value of upskilling local, non-clinical, ethnically diverse community members to deliver mental health education to their peers.
Overall, the report emphasises how the pilot programme has had a potentially deep and lasting impact on the mental wellbeing of the community.
Click here to read the full pilot report.
Click here to read the executive summary.
Click here to view the pilot infographic.
Headlight Annual Reports
Our annual reports show more about our work and how we are contributing to better mental health for all.
Find out about our key programmes, sources of funding and how we spend our money.
