Looking back and looking forward

You may not have time to read this Christmas blog, but if you do, thanks for being generous with your time. We appreciate the willingness of many organisations to trust HMA to work with staff and equip them with the skills to work in increasingly complex situations. This year marks 25 years of HMA’s work across social service sectors. Like life, unique consultancies such as ours go through several challenges. When looking back over the last 25 years, there have been several moments that have given us pause to reflect upon the question of whether we are making a difference. The fact that our team continues to be in demand, in my opinion, demonstrates the value that we can bring to an organisation. 

This year has stretched us into interesting and challenging areas. I list many of these below, along with our ongoing work with our larger clients: 

• We supported the Beyond Blue Support Service (an Australian-wide phone and web chat service) to develop part of the induction training program around bringing a motivational interviewing lens to crisis work.

• We worked with the Top End Regional Health Service in the Northern Territory to develop an approach to focusing on identifying users of domestic, family and sexualised violence and engaging them in pathways to change.
  

• Continued to provide onboarding for the HMA disrupting family violence program for Queensland Corrective Services, which is their preferred program for tackling the use of violence within the prison system.
  

• Continued to provide advanced motivational interviewing training for Corrections Victoria staff, as well as a bespoke piece of work around service users with very complex needs (DFFH).

• We have had the pleasure of working with the Orange Door and program intervention teams from Peninsula Health in Victoria on effective engagement, innovation, and program delivery.
  

• Continued to deliver as part of induction training to the Northern Territory Corrective Services workshops around motivational interviewing as well as domestic family and sexualised violence.
  

We also supported several smaller pieces of work, such as the Tairawhiti Men’s Centre, DOVE Hawke’s Bay, Odyssey House, Manaaki Ora (Rotorua), and the New Zealand Defence Force youth program.

I was a subject matter expert in tranche two of the Ministry of Social Development’s Te Huringa ō Te Ao procurement project, designed to reach culturally diverse and often marginalised communities around domestic, family and sexualised violence. 

And as a highlight, I was invited to run a workshop and keynote at the SPEAQ conference on the Gold Coast. This practitioner conference provided a forum for the rich sharing of practice ideas, and there were plenty.  

As we look forward to 2025, the work program is looking exciting. A few highlights include: 

• The RĀTĀ Foundation has granted HMA resources to undertake a pilot evaluation of our Ake app.
  

• We are continuing to deliver our Motivational Interviewing and Family Violence Masterclass.

• Running a train-the-trainer for Corrections Victoria for the internal training team around advanced motivational interviewing practice.

• We will continue to support our major clients with training around intervention skills for DFSV, and other areas.

On a personal note, I remain chair of Stopping Violence Services Otautahi/Christchurch for 12 months. I have been elected to the Board of Directors for the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers for a three-year term.

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