Speaker 1 (00:00.568)
This podcast contains themes that may be upsetting to some listeners. Please listen with caution and look in the show notes for resources if you need some help.

Speaker 1 (00:16.558)
Kia ora, I'm Alexia Black, host of The Difference, the podcast for mental health and addiction support workers in Aotearoa. Each episode we dive into the real issues facing our workforce, from worker well-being and vicarious trauma to leadership and lived experience. You'll hear practical insights, inspiring stories and honest korero to help you feel connected, supported and empowered in your mahi. Let's get started.

Speaker 1 (00:46.528)
this episode we're talking to Tash Hoffman. Tash is a peer support specialist for Springhill Treatment Centre, a residential addiction treatment centre in Napier. Tash has lived experience of addiction issues and went through the 10 week programme at Springhill herself. She's also a mama of five boys under the age of 11 and a member of the National Support Work Advisory Group here at Te Pou.

Speaker 1 (01:13.016)
Hey Tash, welcome to The Difference. Hey. It's great to have you here. You want to tell us a little bit about who you are?

Hi! Thank you for having me.

Sure. My name is Tash. I grew up in Hastings Hawke's Bay. I moved to South Taranaki, lived there for 10 years or so. Had some babies and decided it was time to come home to Napier. So in the midst of it all, actually packed up and went straight into rehab. Spring Hill for substance addiction and stayed there for

10 weeks I think it was. Yeah, now I'm kind of coming out on the other side and living a new life.

That's fantastic. And it's good being back in Napier.

Speaker 2 (02:01.922)
Absolutely. I never thought I'd move back.

something about it, eh, going home. It's terrifying, but also at some point in your life, it just feels right. That's cool. So what does Spring Hill?

So Springhill is a treatment centre, a rehabilitation based in Napier. It's kind of in a residential area. It's just like a big house with accommodation block. It's trauma-based therapy. Role there? So I'm a peer support specialist. Only one. Yes. Yeah. It's a brand new role. So I'm still kind of finding my feet, but yeah, I'm loving it.

and watch your right

The only one.

Speaker 1 (02:42.35)
It's awesome that they've decided to start using peer support in their program.

Yes, it took a while to get the role happening, through the amazing management there, our team leader got it up and going.

Yeah, I understand you feel really well supported.

Yes, yes, yeah, I've got a great team there.

So what does a peer support specialist do?

Speaker 2 (03:04.206)
So I guess my whole reason for my job is looking at those tension points of post-treatment, so before people come into treatment and then after they graduate or exit or choose to leave, those were the areas that weren't really supporting our whai ora. I have an amazing job. I get to take people out for coffee and answer all the questions that they might have. And I think the point of difference there is

because I've been through it, they get real answers from me. And when I say I understand how you're feeling, I really mean it. That's kind of my main role.

I don't know if it's about passport, but I always think of that saying that it's about 100 cups of tea, but it's usually coffee.

Speaker 1 (03:59.638)
And were talking before about tension points. What are those?

Yeah, yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (04:06.51)
So tension points, I suppose, are areas where there isn't much support or I guess the therapy team are so busy. They've got an amazing job that they do with our whai ora who come in and stay for eight to 10 weeks. That was just like the missing points along our whai ora's journey. So going into rehab is massive, but there's also before and after.

where's the support for them then? Yeah.

So it's kind of like the transition back into the community. Which is where we know that, you know, for people who are accessing any kind of service, that's one of the places where people can fall out of the system. Yeah, for sure. And one of the things that they monitor as well is like, because the highest rate of readmission is in those first 10 days after somebody has had a spell in the acute unit or something. Yep.

Yeah, just staying connected with them knowing that they're still thought of as well, even after they leave. And they've just done some really hard yards unpacking some stuff. yeah, just knowing that they're still thought of.

Yeah, that's awesome. So you maintain a connection with them after they've left? Yep. So how long?

Speaker 2 (05:19.352)
Yeah. So for our locals, as much as possible, as long as possible. I've got a couple of whaiora who are coming up a year and out of towners, it's usually about two to three months, sometimes longer, if I can kind of swindle that.

Which is a really great segue actually into talking about boundaries. yourself well. So, and this is something that, you we've covered a little bit in our episode that we did on vicarious trauma and worker wellbeing. But I think even harder for peer support to maintain that boundary sometimes because you are there as a peer. But when you care about your tangata whaiaora that you work with, it's really hard to.

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (06:09.228)
say no, I'm off the clock. as we know, crisis doesn't always happen between nine and five and on weekdays. So what are some of the things that you've been employing to kind of keep yourself well and keep those boundaries?

So reflective practice. I didn't have that in the beginning. At the same time, I also had some friends come through the program because I'm in the same kind of recovery community, the same community that I work in. There's overlapping. I really struggled with that. And I just was going home thinking about these beautiful people who are struggling. So I had to dig deep with

my reflective practitioner who is amazing, who's been through a lot of similar experiences. I unpack a lot of stuff with her and she helps me figure out my own boundaries or how to express my boundaries, how to practice my boundaries.

Could you explain a little bit more about what reflective practice is? Because not everybody's going to know what that term is. And just, you know, I'm not expecting you to be an expert on reflective practice here. But just what does it mean to you? Yeah.

So I guess I look at my reflective practitioner as a bit of a mentor. And during the week or the month, I write down some things that I might be struggling with. It could be some of my study that I'm doing, peer support study, anything that has been troubling me during the month. So I write all of that down and then we have a Zoom meeting once a month. And we just kind of talk through the problems or what's on my mind, what I've been struggling with at work.

Speaker 2 (07:54.774)
Yeah, and she gives a bit of feedback and asks some questions and then usually she'll sum up our Zoom session and send it back to me so I can go back and have a look through. Yeah, so I guess it's just reflecting on how I work and how I can improve because I always want to improve. It can always be better.

Absolutely, don't be detached.

You do better.

But because not everybody gets access to an external reflective practitioner. For some people it's talking to their upload manager or a group peer support kind of situation, group supervision or the like. They all have their pros and cons, but there's something about being able to have a safe space to share that I think is really important. Not to say that you can't get great...

as you do, support from your upline. But some people, I think, feel like supervision is not always a safe space to be able to speak up about what's going on for them. What do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (09:07.438)
Well, I guess I've never experienced it personally. I feel sad. I feel sad for those people who feel unsafe to talk about what's going on for them. And I would keep looking. There's heaps people out there, surely, that are doing it.

Yeah, I think it's just changing the conversation, I guess, so that it's not, I've got to go to supervision and show what I'm not dealing with well. That's going to show me as weak or not dealing with my job well. And I don't really want to expose myself like that. And changing that conversation to this is an opportunity for you to grow as a support worker and to

be able to talk out what happened, what could I have done differently, how could I do it in another way in the future. It's not a weakness to show those things. It's actually a strength. So I guess it's wanting to shift the conversation a little bit so that people see it as an opportunity.

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (10:14.252)
Yeah, everything we do is for our whai ora. So maybe just stepping out of the comfort zone a little bit, growing and learning. Life's all about that. Yeah.

And if you're looking after yourself in your practice, then you are looking after the tangata whaora that you support, Yeah. If you don't look after yourself, how are you going to love anybody else? That's what it is. Rupul. If you don't love yourself, sorry. You don't necessarily click with everybody. And so if at first you don't click with the reflective practice practitioner, try again.

Definitely.

Speaker 2 (10:47.18)
Mm, that's right.

Speaker 2 (10:55.074)
Yeah,

until you've got somebody who, you know, who feel comfortable.

Yeah, yeah, ideally somebody who's alongside peer support or even better who has done peer support or support work. I feel like that brings a whole other level to reflective practice.

Yeah, because mean, a lot of clinicians and other health professionals, they access this to maintain their practice certificate. So it's an important part of their registration and their continued practice. Support workers and peer support workers, it's not mandated that they receive reflective practice. arguably, I would say it's even more important for the support workforce.

to be able to talk out what they go through and what they deal with because they are on the front lines every day. How was it for you before you started accessing reflective practice? Was there something that was happening for you that kind of made you think, I'll hold up, I think I need some assistance or support here?

Speaker 2 (11:49.589)
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (12:02.798)
Yeah, I'd heard through the grapevine that it can be an isolating job. And in the beginning, I just, have such an amazing team that we work with. I didn't feel it initially, but then a few months down the track, I really started feeling a bit isolated. Being the only person who does my job there, I found it hard to connect or to relate or for other people to relate to me. Yeah. Yeah.

You're talking about your colleagues.

Yeah, so just isolated in my role. And it felt easy for other people to say, you just need to put up a boundary. You just need to put up a wall when you're supporting somebody that you already know. But I just couldn't shake that feeling because I'd been in that place. When I see my friends struggling, it really hurt. It hurt my heart so much. That's kind of when I knew that I needed more support.

Team lead always said that supervision is really important. And then when I brought it up with you, yeah, there's no going back.

you wouldn't continue without access to someone who understands the role that you do and is able to talk to you in that space? Yeah. What do think it gives you?

Speaker 2 (13:20.846)
Just another perspective of looking at things and also having somebody understand how hard it can be and to give some real life examples as well. Having that relatability and mutuality. Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. Hopefully we can grow the reflective practice list of available practitioners so that it's not so hard for people to find somebody to connect with,

Yes, yeah, and I just advise anyone to get onto it straight away. Yeah, because you know, it's about sharing successes as well. Yeah, so you want to be able to start that process as soon as possible.

Cool. They're really good at what they do, And in terms of encouraging you to start noticing your own triggers or your own, like, when things are falling off the rails for you. Yes. Even just the act of speaking it out loud. don't even need to say anything. Like, you just say it and you're like, whoa, hold on. That's not good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So were there things like that that were kind of happening for you that were like little warning signs?

I guess I was really taking my work home with me and my kids get the brunt of it, if I'm being honest. You know, like I go home and I can't stop thinking about it. That was a huge warning sign when I just want to go home and go to bed. You know, that's when my babies miss out.

Speaker 1 (14:44.76)
What do you like about your role?

I love celebrating with other people. I guess I feel really honored to share their journey as well. Seeing them in the first few days can be heartbreaking and then by the end of it, sitting in their graduation and seeing the look on their faces, so proud of themselves. That's definitely a sparkling moment for me. Being able to join people's graduations and then the catch-ups we have afterwards.

hearing all about what they've been up to since they got home, know, reconnecting with family. I also really love that I'm trusted now and people come to me.

Is that not something that you've always had?

No!

Speaker 1 (15:32.108)
You're a peer support worker. Do you also work alongside community support workers?

Wow, that's a new thing that's happening in Hawke's Bay. There's a couple of NGOs that have gotten together. So a few people from Problem Gambling have connected with some peer support there. So Springhill is under Te Whātua Ora. We have a few peer support workers in different areas, different services. We've just started getting together with other services outside of Te Whātua Ora.

We've been getting together and sharing about our services, connecting, sharing resources. It's quite a new thing. was happening, I think it happened every couple of weeks towards the end of last year. We haven't had another one yet, but that's definitely going to be an ongoing thing.

That's really neat, hey, because so often support workers only interact with other support workers from their organization. So it's almost like you guys are creating a bit of a network of organizations that provide peer support in your community. And why do you think that's valuable?

Yes.

Speaker 2 (16:43.95)
mean, it's really great to be able to refer people to different places, having that knowledge of services. know, everybody's journey is so unique and different. We all need different things at different points in our lives. So just knowing what's out there and being able to connect people, having those community connections.

That's cool and I think it would be really important as well for that transitioning back to the community space. Yeah, you're much more likely to refer someone to a place or a person that you know and you trust, aren't you?

Yes, getting to know the fire order and then linking them up with a person at that service. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, I mean same like finding a reflective practice practitioner that you link with or connect with. That's the same, right? Tangis whaora not going to click with every peer support or support worker who's out there. the more you know, the better equipped you are to refer. That's cool. So how have you used what you've learnt in reflective practice in your mahi?

Go on.

Speaker 2 (17:47.448)
So my reflective practitioner goes by the CYPSIL framework. So she's always sending me little links about the values and how to apply the values. I think self-determination was a big one for me when I came to her and I was like, I know this person would be better off doing it like this, but I can't say that because their journey is determined by themselves.

they're in control of their journey and their recovery is their recovery. Putting that into practice is a big one for me. Not dictating or not telling other people how they should be living in recovery.

That's awesome. If you think back to when you were, before you had access to reflective practice, do you think that without accessing it, you might not have lasted this long in your role?

Probably not, either that or I would have suffered from many a burnout without talking through some things. The workload would have got far too heavy for me. It's one of the things about being an empath, I think. You know, we carry other people's hurt. Yeah, and also sharing successes as well. You know, I get to go into it bubbling and...

She reflects that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So encouraging.

Speaker 1 (19:15.818)
So, happy for you.

Because support workers go, go, And you're on your feet all the time. The need is so great that I think we don't have enough time to celebrate those wins. And the wins might not be something that you can count, but they're things you feel. So having that feedback or that someone else cheering you on in your corner and going, I see that, that's a success. That's awesome.

be just enough to keep you going, hey? Yeah. Cool. Sometimes I think people in the lived experience workforce have a bit of an advantage on this because we're so good at bringing our whole self into the workplace. How do you incorporate your personal life and your lived experience into your role in a way that keeps you safe?

for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:11.901)
I guess I start off with coming in and jumping on the couch, throwing my handbag on the floor, saying good morning to everyone. This doesn't work. They'll be waiting in the lounge for their group to start. So I'm like, oh, yay. So I jump down and see how everyone's weekend was. And that sets me up for just being myself.

Let's just be clear, this isn't work. I love that.

Speaker 2 (20:40.8)
And then, you know, it takes time to build connections. So that's always a starting point for me to start my day. And then I guess when we start talking a little bit more in depth, it just comes out naturally. How do I do it healthily? I check in with my gut. As I'm speaking, I always can relate to the other person and I can feedback from my experiences.

But if I get a twinge or something or I hesitate or something, I just kind of have to check in with myself and ask, that too much? Is that helpful for me to share this? Because the last thing I want to do is trigger somebody else or to take the conversation away from them. So I want to be able to share things that let them know that they're not alone, but also not so much about myself.

So you're not just going in and telling your gory story every single day of your work life.

Just a bit of drugger logging in the morning.

Speaker 1 (21:47.438)
I imagine that would get really hard after just a couple days. There's a real art I think to learning how to, and that's why the importance of training. There's a few different types of peer support training that are out there. What ones have you accessed?

Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:07.15)
So I started with David Burnside's Peer Support 101, which just made me fall in love with the idea of being a peer support worker. And that was well before Spring Hills Role was established. And then my manager got just, he just got pumped up. David also does a workshop. does a workshop for managers as well, which my team leader went to and just...

came out of there so inspired. Currently I'm doing peer support level four through Career Force. It's so hard. It's so hard. I thought correspondence was going to be easier because I could do it on my own time. And then I forgot I don't get much on my own time. So I think next time I go into a bit more study I'd like to do maybe part-time on campus.

How you finding that?

Speaker 1 (22:57.826)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:04.472)
But it's really got me fired up to learn more for sure.

You've got to find the right mode for you. And Dave does such great work.

Yes, he's great. He's great.

So peer support is getting a lot of backing politically at the moment. they're talking about bringing it into whole lots of other spaces that has traditionally just been the medical professionals. And that's awesome. mean, I'm really biased, but I think we want to keep that trajectory going. Have you seen anything or noticed anything or as a peer support worker yourself, what do you think that...

the sector needs to keep in mind as we go down this path.

Speaker 2 (23:49.87)
I definitely think training before people are on the floor, just how to use our lived experience safely and mentorship, whatever that may look like to be supported in our roles. And I think communities of practice really been wanting to start one, but it just hasn't quite happened yet. You know, connection, we say that so much in recovery.

connection is key. So yeah, just because we're peer support workers doesn't mean that connection doesn't really matter anymore. know, connection with... Yeah, yeah.

community of practice wherever they're based. Yes. Thanks so much Tash for coming in and talking to us today.

Cool, thank you for having me. It's been a great day. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (24:45.73)
Well that's a wrap. I'm Alexi Black. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Difference, a podcast for support workers in mental health and addiction in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Be sure to listen to the other episodes in the series and check out the resources and links for more information. Just want to take a wee moment to let our listeners know about the brand new section that we've created on the Te Pou website. It's dedicated just to mental health and addiction support workers.

We've been busy the last few months pulling together a whole bunch of learning opportunities and resources and putting them all in one place, making them super easy for support workers to find. So whether you're wanting to access some professional development or just learn from the experiences of other support workers, make sure you go and check out the new space on the depot website. I hope you find it helpful. Mā te wā. See you next time.