Ni sa bula vinaka (a warm hello) to you all for Fijian language week!

You may be aware that there have been a couple of changes within the leadership team at the Ministry of Health. 

From Monday until the end of the year Robyn Shearer will be acting in the Deputy Director General DHB Performance, Support and Infrastructure role. She won’t be stepping away from the Mental Health and Addiction Directorate entirely, but I’m happy to say that I have stepped in to take care of the day-to-day operations of the team.

Robyn is looking forward to the opportunity to work more closely with the DHB teams and I will be focused on ensuring we don’t lose any momentum on delivering our work programme.

I have been with the Ministry since January, having previously worked at Canterbury District Health Board.

I have met some of you already this year and look forward to meeting many more of you virtually through zui between now and Christmas.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who got involved in Mental Health Awareness Week 2020 this year. At the Ministry, we celebrated the week with a couple of presentations and Q&A sessions with Sir John Kirwan and Dr Sarb Johal. We also worked closely with the Mental Health Foundation to share those important messages about mental wellbeing through our social media channels, including a Facebook Live chat with Dr Bloomfield and Robyn that proved popular.

Vinaka vakalevu.
(Thank you very much).

Toni Gutschlag
Acting Deputy Director-General, Mental Health and Addiction