KEY POINTS:
Refugee mental health services plan to reach more people without too much damage to the environment through a new fleet of "eco-cars".
Refugees As Survivors, a charitable trust which runs a mental health clinic at the Mangere refugee centre, has bought four hybrid petrol/electric cars to take its services in rotation to clinics at Mt Roskill, Glen Innes, Beach Haven, Manukau and Waitakere.
The new $600,000 service, which will expand the trust's staff from 15 to 25 fulltime equivalents, was launched by Prime Minister Helen Clark at the new Mt Roskill clinic in Dominion Rd yesterday.
The team includes psychologists, doctors, nurses, social workers and community workers from the Afghan, Burmese, Iraqi, Kurdish, Somali and Sudanese communities.
Chief executive Gary Poole said the four Toyota Prius cars, funded by a grant from the Sky City Community Trust, would be good for the environment and cheaper to run.
The cars still need petrol, but minimise fuel use by charging the cars' batteries using a generator and regenerative braking. The local agent, the Clean Green Car Company, says the cars can run for 20km on a litre of petrol.
Mr Poole said the trust had been limited until now to looking after the 750 refugees who come through the Mangere centre each year, plus asylum-seekers who are referred to the centre.
In the year to June, the trust saw 358 clients. More than half (222) were from Burma and 85 from Afghanistan. The new mobile service, funded jointly by the Government and the ASB Community Trust, will keep working with refugees after they leave the Mangere centre for as long as they need help.
"A large proportion have been traumatised and a significant proportion are victims of torture, so they require a lot of help," Mr Poole said.
"It takes on average six to 10 sessions over a period of up to six months. Sometimes they have to be on medication. But then we find that once it [trauma] is dealt with, they move on very quickly."
