“That’s through all the staff working with a clear purpose and vision for what people who fall over and have mental health and addiction struggles need to get up again and show others how to find their way,” he said.
However, he would continue his work as the non-Māori chairman of the consumer council for Te Whatu Ora Whanganui, making sure the people who use help services have their experiences heard as a way to improve their experiences.
Outside health work, he tended to his farm and planned on writing a memoir.
Bristol was looking forward to spending more time on holiday with his partner.
“I’ve got to somehow pull away from some of the work I’m doing now; the goal is to do less rather than more.”
Bristol said he first got involved in mental health services due to his upbringing and the treatment he received at Lake Alice psychiatric hospital.
As a teenager, he was taken out of school and put in the facility for what was then called manic depression but is now known as bipolar disorder.
“I spent, in and out of there, around 10 years till around 1980 being treated — well, treated was a pretty euphemistic word for Lake Alice, some pretty bad stuff happened there,” he said.
His time in the hospital forged a lifelong interest in mental health and addiction.
“Maybe there could be a role for people like me in developing and ... supporting other people with similar conditions and experiences.”
Bristol was appointed to the reference group for the Royal Commission of Inquiry — Abuse in Care investigation into the hospital.
“I was appointed to the reference group for my lived experience and my expertise and understanding of the abuse that happened in the Lake Alice child adolescent unit,” he said.
Balance was formed as a way to answer a common issue he and the other founding members saw in Whanganui of people not having a safe place to get support and be listened to in a non-judgmental way.
He was proud of how far the organisation had come, now having a roster of 12 fulltime staff and contributing to national initiatives such as the repeal and replacement of the Mental Health Act that was ongoing.
Since forming, the organisation had changed how it operated from a diagnostic approach to focusing more on recovery, learning from one another and humanistic values.
“Not being about what’s wrong with us, shifting to being about what’s happened to us then understanding what’s happened to us and how we can heal from it.”
He found it a much more helpful approach to support and was reflective of his own journey of healing, having not needed to see a psychiatrist since the 1980s thanks to his support system, in particular his late wife.
This change led to Balance becoming more of a rights-based organisation, leading to its work on the Mental Health Act looking at how it breached both people’s human rights and their rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
“So far it’s been an eight-year process trying to get the act changed, even though we know it’s breached our rights.”
He was part of the expert advisory group for the repealing of the act, and he hoped to see that happen next year.
Balance Aotearoa’s office is open 9am-3pm, Monday to Friday, in Community House, 60 Ridgway St.
Finn Williams is a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle. He joined the Chronicle in early 2022 and regularly covers stories about business, events and emergencies. He also enjoys writing opinion columns on whatever interests him.
