Eileen Mahe – Advisor in Primary Health and Urgent Care

“After spending ten years in frontline statutory social work, I wanted to extend my knowledge and challenge myself. I enrolled in the Master of Social Work and it was the best thing I ever did for my personal and professional growth and development.

“The staff created a safe space for us to exchange our experiences and have healthy conversations about our practices across different disciplines. Having a separate entity away from work was really refreshing and good for my wairua.

“An in-class conversation about moral courage inspired me to complete my research topic about how social workers action moral courage when navigating their day-to-day decision making. I wanted to look into how we can hold space for social workers to speak up or go against the status quo when they are ethically conflicted about decisions being made in child protection. My hope is that my findings would better inform practice and service delivery. I’m also researching how primary school teaching staff respond to children who have experienced abuse and trauma.

“I studied while working full-time and raising my young children – it’s a challenge, but when you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like work. A lot of the programme is designed to suit people who are already in practice so I’m thankful for that support and flexibility.

“I’m also currently in an advisory role in primary health and urgent care. Our organisation is piloting a new integrated service model which is one of the first in New Zealand in our field. I am very privileged to be a part of an amazing team of pioneers and to be a part of this wellness project in primary health.

“I love that I have the opportunity to give back to people and pay it forward. I’m grateful that every day I get to engage with some of our most vulnerable communities and support people in a health context, who might have otherwise slipped through the cracks.”