Manukura | Romy Lee

Ko Rangitoto tōku maunga

Ko Wairau tōku awa

전주李(Jeonju Lee) me 충주韓(Chungju Han) nō toku tipuna

Ko Raki paewhenua tōku kainga

Ko Romy Lee tōku ingoa

I like to have my fingers in many pies at all times. Currently, my mahi is as a Service Manager at Asian Family Services, where I lead an incredible team of clinicians and youth peer support workers who deliver mental health services to tamariki aged 5-13 in Counties Manukau.

Beyond this role, I have my own business where I contract to service providers in the Mental Health and Addiction sector (and beyond), providing consulting, supervision and clinical expertise.

I am a board member of dapaanz, Aotearoa’s addiction practitioners’ association.

My career began from deeply personal roots—my own lived experience navigating mental health and addiction challenges. There was a time when my world felt impossibly small, and hope seemed out of reach. I am very fortunate that I had good people and professionals in my corner to support me to overcome my mental health and addiction challenges.  Working in this space is my way of giving back to my community and ensuring that others have access to the same hope for recovery that I had.

But my journey into this work was also driven by a stark realization: as a young intersectional person journeying through the system, I rarely saw people who looked like me and understood my life. I am passionate about growing a diverse and representative workforce.

Visibility matters. Representation matters.

As the child of immigrants growing up in Aotearoa, my cultural identity was often a confusing space to navigate. Disconnected from my parents’ whenua and extended family, I began to reconnect with my culture and identity during my recovery, guided by the wisdom and tikanga of Te Ao Māori from elders who had journeyed before me. These experiences shaped not only my identity but also my approach to mahi.

I’ve been very blessed to have worked on lots of exciting mahi over the years. I’ve worked with the World Health Organisation, THREE, NZ Herald, TVNZ, RNZ to name a few, as well as overseas in Australia, Canada and across Europe.

Some of my favourite professional experiences have been leading projects that influence workforce development, service design and systemic advocacy, particularly in the youth mental health and addiction sector. In 2022, I created a full-service training package to upskill, grow and support young people coming into lived experience and peer roles in our workforce. The package also supported services and managers to rethink employment, recruitment and service delivery structure, to include this vital set of expertise that had been missing. As a result of this, dozens of roles have been created in services around the country, and young people with lived experience are now valued colleagues of clinicians.

I can’t choose one thing that I love the most about my work. The focus of my mahi is anything and everything to do with Mental Health and Addiction. Given my experiences and expertise, I like to jam together all of the schools of knowledge that I hold as a clinician, supervisor, consultant and person with lived experience.

My hopes for the future will always remain the same – to move and shake systems in Aotearoa to make sure everyone can access Mental Health and Addiction support when they need it, where they need it and in a way that works for them.

I’ll do my bit to contribute to this future.