There are high hopes for the impact a "wife and wife team" with extensive knowledge, experience and contacts in the mental health and addictions field will have when they join the OUTLine team on a 12 month contract. Anna Birkenhead and Diana Rands have been appointed to the shared role of Community Project Manager at the Auckland-based phone support service, a position that was created thanks to funding from the Auckland District Health Board. The couple, who celebrated their civil union this year, will specifically work to ensure that the mainstream services being offered to people from the rainbow community are being delivered in the most appropriate way. Birkenhead is a highly-experienced mental health clinician nurse, while Rands is a trainer and facilitator in the addictions field and has been the GLBT project coordinator at Community Alcohol and Drug Services (CADS) Auckland. OUTLine General Manager Vaughan Meneses says both have a wealth of experience and are also well known and respected within the community. "We are really looking forward to the difference that they will make," he says. "It has been well recognised anecdotally that many from our community do not get the appropriate level of service to meet their specific needs. Some of our people encounter blatant homophobia; while others get worn down by the heterosexist attitudes and assumptions made by clinicians and staff in their work. "This can make people very wary of seeking treatment and pushes many back in the closet while in treatment and this never has good outcomes. We need to ensure that we have the same level of treatment and access to service as everybody else, and that means not assuming we are straight," Meneses says "We are really rapt to have Di and Anna coming to work for us. And they are equally excited about it."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 3rd January 2011 - 6:53pm