IT Professionals NZ Understanding mental illness and suicide prevention in the workplace

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Following on from the well-received ITP National event at the end of 2018, the ITP ChCh branch will commence the new year with a further event regarding wellness in the workplace.

The World Health Organisation believes that depression is the leading cause of disability in the world. Depression is just one of a whole host of mental illnesses, such as anxiety, addiction, eating disorders and many more.

Many people know that mental illness and suicide are significant issues within the workforce but they don’t feel confident approaching these issues. This presentation will help all attendees know how to approach someone, what they should manage themselves and when they need to call in the professionals.

In this presentation you will gain…

• A good understanding of mental illness, depression, anxiety, addiction, and psychosis, how to spot it and how to find appropriate help for it.
• How to approach someone who you suspect may have a mental illness.
• Your responsibilities as an employer to ensure a safe workplace.
• A good overview of factors that lead to suicide.
• How to approach someone who is suicidal and how to help and support them in the workplace.

Please arrive 5:30pm for a 5:45 start, after the presentation will be an opportunity for networking over light refreshments.

About The Speaker

Michael Hempseed is a very busy professional speaker. He usually delivers 3-4 workshops per week, on such diverse topics as overcoming failure, mental illness and suicide prevention. Michael gained an honours degree in psychology from the University of Canterbury in 2008.

Funny, full of enthusiasm and taking a genuine interest in people are all qualities that make Michael a captivating speaker. Recently Michael spoke at Tedx in Darwin. Michael has written a book called “Being a True Hero: Understanding and Preventing Suicide in your Community”, it will be released Feb 20th.

Attendance Cost

IT Professionals NZ is a community of thousands of professionals who work in the IT industry and care about professional practice, support professional development, set standards, and work hard to help other members get ahead. With a history spanning more than 56 years, ITP is the largest and most trusted tech body in New Zealand.

ITP is a not-for-profit Incorporated Society, and works hard to improve both the education and professional development of those broadly working with computers and technology and the computer-related education of the country as a whole. ITP represents around 10,000 tech professionals.

ITP’s recognised Te Reo Maori (indigenous New Zealand) name is Te Pou Hangarau Ngaio.

This perfectly describes ITP’s role as a support to its members:

• Te Pou: the centre pole, the central post of a building such as a marae, i.e. the main support
• Hangarau: the generally accepted word for technology
• Ngaio: experts or professionals

So Te Pou Hangarau Ngaio means the central pole or structure supporting technology professionals.

ITP’s legal name is Institute of IT Professionals New Zealand Incorporated.