Come Together

Living standards and asset accumulation are important predictors of future mental health.

- Marc Wilson

It won’t look like it, but this is less a column than a live blog. I’m sitting in the marae at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, waiting for my turn to present as part of a mental-health and law conference. The conference has been opened by Nigel Fairley, president of the NZ branch of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.

Apparently there is no rest for the wicked, and that means Fairley has been particularly wicked, because he is also a consultant psychologist and director of mental health for the Capital and Coast District Health Board. Pre-conference conversation focused heavily on topics such as the mental-health and addiction inquiry under way for months now.