A young cartoonist is taking the mickey out of mental health.
Mental-health staff in Wanganui are getting an insight into younger people from the cartoons of UCOL student William Tongue.
They are drawn to show how young people view Whanganui District Health Board mental-health staff and the services they provide.
Balance Whanganui youth support worker Peter London said the cartoons were achieving exactly what they were designed for. Balance Whanganui is a mental-health agency.
Sponsored by Balance Whanganui's manager, Frank Bristol, the project is run by WDHB-based SUPP clinician Mark Wood and Balance Whanganui youth-support worker Peter London. SUPP was established this year to help communication between those working in mental health and those needing the services.
"We approached UCOL to see if they had graphic-design students who might be interested in designing cartoons that could help young people describe what they experienced when accessing our mental health, and alcohol and other drugs services and how that makes them feel," Mr Wood said.
The cartoons and their perspective had immediate impact.
"Initially, some of our staff found the messages in the cartoons a little confronting but that's where the value of the exercise lies," Mr Wood says. "I think everyone appreciates that to be able to 'walk in a young person's shoes' and 'see what they see' is a very good thing.
"The cartoons enable us to understand what young people find intimidating when accessing our services, how they perceive the adult world and what changes we might want to make."
Student cartoonist Mr Tongue was handpicked for the job.
"William's tutor identified him as ideal for the task and agreed that the cartoons could be counted as part of William's course portfolio.
"William's cartoons are very impressive. I think he's really captured the messages he got from the young people he talked to. It's great that that they've had this opportunity to talk to an artist who's the same age as many of them. We're very lucky to have the UCOL graphic-design course in Whanganui."
This was the third time Mr Wood had approached UCOL to see if it had students willing to provide artwork for WDHB projects. The first time was for the Straight Up project which required a video and posters. The second time was for the SUPP launch in April.