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The TaiwanICDF’s Healthcare
Personnel Training Program was
conceived to support the development
of partner countries’ professional
medical human resources by bringing
health care professionals to Taiwan for
two to three months of on-the-job training
at affiliated hospitals.
Having already played host to a
number of health care professionals
from Fiji and dispatched personnel to
the South Pacific nation as part of health
care-related TaiwanICDF missions, this
past summer saw Mackay Memorial
Hospital in Taipei welcome a further
group of Fijian trainees to Taiwan.
One of this year’s three Fijian
participants, Marike Solvalu, spent
eight weeks with Mackay’s psychiatric
department. Back home, Marike is a
community mental health nurse based
at St. Giles Hospital, a mental health
facility in Suva, Fiji’s capital city. It’s the
largest institution of its kind in the South
Pacific region outside of Australia and
New Zealand, having a capacity to deal
with 120 patients.
Working with Vast Experience in
A Multidisciplinary Environment
Looking back over his participation
in the Healthcare Personnel Training
Program, Marike says that his first
four weeks at Mackay were focused
on understanding how personnel
assess clients with mental illnesses
or disabilities, look at individuals’
strengths and weaknesses, and,
building on their strengths, work toward
practical solutions that increase their
capacity. He says that it was not only
useful to work with people with vast
experience, but also to work with people
in a multidisciplinary environment,
and with occupational therapists in
particular. Working alongside dedicated
occupational therapists, as well as
psychologists and job counselors, he’s
been really impressed by the outcome
of these team efforts in terms of the
impact upon clients’ lives.
As the program progressed,
Marike also had the chance to see
how Mackay’s community-based
rehabilitation efforts help clients move
from acute care to rehabilitation, and
then from rehabilitation to sheltered
accommodation.
“One of the areas that I will say I’m
confident in after this training, that I
have a better way by learning from
Taiwan’s experience, is how to move
progressively from each stage, to ensure
that at the end of the line those who live
with mental health illnesses, they are
able to adjust and live a normal life,” he
says.
Observing this progression took
Marike out of the hospital’s psychiatric
ward and into its day care rehabilitation
center, as well as the Joy Café, an
initiative developed as part of the
hospital’s sheltered workshop. Based
within the hospital, the café provides
those at a more advanced stage of
rehabilitation with constructive, real-life
employment and responsibilities within
a safe environment monitored by job
counselors.
“It’s amazing to see the different skills
and abilities,” Marike says, referring to
the clients he met working there.
Support to People Living with Mental
Illnesses and Disabilities within the
Community
The rest of the program took
Marike even further afield, with visits
to an external psychiatric rehabilitation
center, and to a government workforce
development agency. There was also
the Little Shell Workshop, a soap-making
business employing people with autism,
while a visit to a halfway house also left a
big impression.
As for the future of mental health care
provision in Fiji, Marike has taken heart
from the long-term experience of those
he’s met in Taiwan. He says that his
greatest motivation has been the insight
that real progress is possible back
home.
“Looking at Taiwan’s history, you
realize Taiwan was developed over the
last 20 to 30 years,” he says. “It really
empowers me that, even though we
do not have resources, that should not
be a barrier or an excuse. We can just
modify some things, start somewhere.
Modify some equipment, to come up
with something. The idea to ‘come up
with something’ has become clearer to
me now.
“Before attending this training I did
not have that capacity to think outside
the box, but I’m happy that after this
training I have a lot of insight and I can
foresee a lot of progress and ways to
develop the community in terms of
employment, supporting employment
for people with [mental illnesses and]
disabilities.”
Marike Solvalu, Community Mental Health Nurse,
St. Giles Hospital, Fiji
Long-term Experience fromTaiwan
Inspiring Progress, Developing Fiji’s
Human Resources in Mental Health
Care
Interview
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