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Cathy Tod

Growing up in Seacliff, a village known to the wider region as a place for mad people, Cathy Tod lived happily within a diverse community that serviced Seacliff psychiatric hospital. Many family members worked at the hospital and patients attended community gatherings, such as church and school.

It wasn't until Cathy started high school in Dunedin that she became aware, after ongoing teasing, that Seacliff meant you were different. However the stigma didn't turn her away from the world of mental health. Instead, it became her career focus; one she has continued to find satisfaction in over the past 40 years.

Currently a crisis nurse for the Otago District Health Board North community mental health team, Cathy has worked in various roles in crisis services for around 20 years. "I enjoy acute crisis work because it's mostly unscheduled, dynamic, empowering and rewarding. I enjoy the privilege of working alongside the service user during a personal crisis in a way that brings about stabilisation, recovery and growth," says Cathy.

Training that has strongly influenced her work includes family therapies, psychotherapy - and more recently - cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness interventions. "I find these interventions very empowering because they give clients skills that assist understanding of their experience, of their depression, their anxiety and themselves."

She says clinical supervision, ongoing education and networking are incredibly important to the welfare of nurses. "In mental health nursing, the self is the tool of the trade. To care for others you have to care for yourself. We don't have equipment or machines to do our work. We have to be in a clear space ourselves to work."

Read more about Cathy Tod's role as crisis nurse for Otago DHB community health services team.