Overcoming addiction in her mid-20s inspired Deb Fraser-Komene to help youth to do the same.<\/p>\n
She has been a community leader in improving mental health outcomes for young people since the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
She is the director for Mirror Services in Otago and Southland, delivering counselling and treatment programmes for young people and their families.<\/p>\n
Ms Fraser-Komene said it was a “real privilege” to become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.<\/p>\n
“It was totally unexpected and beyond what I would have anticipated happening.”<\/p>\n
She trained as an addictions counsellor after having substance abuse and addiction issues herself.<\/p>\n
Ms Fraser-Komene had in the past spoken openly about her lived experience, having overcome addiction in her mid-20s.<\/p>\n
She said that journey profoundly influenced her professional path and leadership approach.<\/p>\n
“Recovery taught me that meaningful change is possible, even when it feels out of reach.<\/p>\n
“That belief has underpinned my work ever since.”<\/p>\n
Ms Fraser-Komene wanted to acknowledge the many colleagues, mentors and communities who supported her work over several decades.<\/p>\n
“No work in this sector is done in isolation,” she said.<\/p>\n
She was grateful to everyone who had worked alongside her.<\/p>\n
Mirror provided early opportunities to foster a strong commitment to bicultural practice, she said.<\/p>\n
“Developing a genuine understanding of te reo M\u0101ori, culture and wh\u0101nau has strengthened our services and outcomes,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Fraser-Komene also played a significant role at the national level as a leader in the National Committee on Addiction Treatment (NCAT), helping to shape policy, workforce and service delivery across the country.<\/p>\n
She emphasised the courage of those seeking support for mental health or addiction challenges.<\/p>\n
“The bravest step someone can take is asking for help.<\/p>\n
“That decision affirms that their life, wellbeing and future matter, even when they may feel the complete opposite.”<\/p>\n
Deborah Kay Fraser-Komene<\/p>\n
Dunedin<\/p>\n
MNZM<\/p>\n
Mental health and youth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overcoming addiction in her mid-20s inspired Deb Fraser-Komene to help youth to do the same. She has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[134,554,555,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-208857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}