Hawke’s Bay’s first crisis cafe opens in Hastings this Friday – On The Up
People struggling with mental health and addiction issues in Hawke’s Bay have a new place to turn, thanks to the region’s first crisis cafe.
Opening on Friday, the Hawke’s Bay Crisis Recovery Cafe, Te Wāhi Poutoko Hūmārie plans to also extend support to the hospital.
The cafe is at 109 Lyndon St West in Hastings, the site of community hub and wraparound support service Kuhu Mai, behind St Andrew’s Hall.
The cafe will be led by Connect Community Trust with Kuhu Mai and other mental health and addiction providers, operating Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 6pm to 10pm.
It aims to provide a calm, peer-led environment for people needing support.
Its hours will be reviewed after four weeks, to ensure they reflect demand.
Connect Community Trust already supports 60 to 70 people experiencing homelessness, mental health, addiction and other complex needs.
Kuhu Mai founder and executive director at the trust Pastor Warren Heke said at the official opening today the cafe had grown out of what he and his team learned by being close to people experiencing difficult times.
“We’ve seen people arrive here distressed, overwhelmed, sometimes disconnected from services and sometimes simply unsure where they can safely go.
“We’ve also learned that the first thing somebody needs is not always another assessment or another referral.
“Sometimes they need somewhere calm to sit, something to eat, somebody who’ll listen and perhaps most importantly, somebody who understands something of the road that they’re walking. That’s what peer support brings.”
Heke said the cafe was not there to replace essential medical services but to create another space in the “wider response” where people could be supported within the community.
“When people feel safe and respected, it becomes easier to talk about what’s happening, reconnect with whānau, engage with health services, address addictions, navigate housing or simply work out what the next few hours need to look like.”
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey was in Hastings for the opening and said the Government was better utilising peer support in a range of settings, with plans to bring peer support from Connect Community Trust into the Hawke’s Bay Hospital Emergency Department for yet-to-be-determined hours by the end of the year.
Doocey said emergency departments weren’t always the best environment for someone experiencing mental distress.
“They can be busy, brightly lit and feel far too clinical when often what someone needs is a calm place to sit down and talk to someone who understands.
“That’s why we are rolling out crisis recovery cafes across the country, giving people faster access to support from people who can link them back to community services, lend a listening ear, and offer people experiencing distress a safe place to go.
“Some of the best solutions already exist in our communities; they just need to be backed.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany and New Zealand.