John Davies

Facilitator - Addiction 101

Before my nursing career, I lived and travelled extensively through Europe, Africa and Asia. My favourite place was Lamu on the Kenyan Coast. When I returned to New Zealand I did a degree in history and political science, despite having an aunty, a grandmother, a great grandmother, a sister and several close friends who were all nurses, plus a Mum who was going to be a nurse but became a teacher instead.

Bowing to the inevitable, I completed a Bachelor of Nursing in 1998 at Christchurch Polytech. Following graduation, I was offered a place on the New Graduate Programme in Mental Health with the Northland District Health Board. Loving Northland, but missing home I returned to Christchurch and started my career in forensic psychiatry, a specialist area of mental health that sits between the criminal justice and health systems.

By moving within different parts of one service, I have worked in acute, rehab and community settings giving me a very broad and deep knowledge of mental health and addiction issues, as the two almost always run side by side. I am extremely interested in the socio-political aspects of health and how factors external to the individual impact on health, trauma-informed care and how colonisation has impacted the physical and mental health of Māori.