Election soapbox: Mental health
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New Zealand's "stubbornly" high suicide rate prompted Stuff reader Michael Steele to chase answers from the politicians on mental health funding.
"In August Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean released figures showing about 540 people a year have taken their own lives since 2007, adding that high rate was "staying stubbornly the same".
The report showed young men and Maori were most likely to commit suicide and that almost 60 per cent of those who died in the year to June had a "known mental history".
Steele's question was one of scores emailed to Stuff and was picked for a poll on what you wanted to ask the political parties. It picked up almost 43 per cent of the vote.
WHAT THE PARTIES SAY
Both National and Labour believe mental health is a priority.
Labour's health spokesman Grant Robertson said there was still a lot of work to do as people sometimes forgot mental health was an issue.
"People's mental well being is as important as their physical well being. It's actually about being able to fulfil your potential in society, to be able to hold down a job.
"I think it's an issue that New Zealanders need to be very aware of. I guess physical health is easier to see, but mental health remains very important. We still have an appalling high suicide rate in this country," he said.
Labour plans to have District Health Boards reprioritise mental health and reinstate the ring-fence for funding.
"Our belief is that a number of District Health Boards have either been under-spending for mental health or some of the money that has been allocated has not been spent on mental health," Robertson said.
"We want to re-instate the integrity of that ring-fence so the money is spent on mental health."
National had been "giving with one hand, and taking with the other".
The budget has been cut consistently over the last couple of years. While there have been some funding increases in some areas, some programmes have been cut, he said.
National last year had to defend cuts of more than $20 million to mental health programmes, but Health Minister Tony Ryall at the time said it was pumping more money into mental health than ever before.
Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman said the National-led Government had continued to increase funds over the past three years.
"More money is going into specialist mental health and addiction services with $1.27 billion invested in 2010/11 compared to $1.18 billion in 2008/09."
Coleman said funds have been used in the most effective possible way, "which means reprioritising spending away from programmes that either are not delivering, or are not meeting community needs in the most effective way possible".
Extra money was going towards extending doctor consultations, more assessments and counselling sessions with clinicians, and packages, which include therapy and other interventions, he said.
Last week, National announced an additional $33m for youth mental health services to improve early intervention and treatment for young offenders.
"The importance of mental health is reflected by the continued increase in resources that the Government is applying across the sector. It clearly shows mental health is a priority for National, and our record over the past three years is testament to that," Coleman said.
SNAP SHOT
National
- $33 million over four years in the development of youth services for young offenders
- $2 million a year to deliver nationally-consistent, enhanced, alcohol and other drug treatment services for youth
- Provide more resources to deliver better services to people with mental health issues, and focus on earlier intervention
- Further develop the Prime Minister's Youth Mental Health Project, which focuses on improving provision of services for youth aged 13 to 19
Labour
- Restore mental health as a health priority for District Health Boards
- Require District Health Boards to set appropriate targets for the restoration and enhancement of mental health services
- Re-instate the ring-fence for mental health funding
- Support early-intervention programmes for those with mild to moderate mental health issues
Green
- Ensure mental health funding is ring-fenced so that it is not diverted to other services
- Give urgent attention to services for child and adolescent mental health needs
- Significantly strengthen controls around the use of Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT)
- Increase funding for accommodation and related services for people living with, and recovering from, mental illness
Maori
- Promote marae-based health clinics as preferred sites of wellbeing and service delivery to support whānau
- Establish youth wellbeing centres in consultation with rangatahi
United Future
- Improve workforce development and funding available for youth-focused counselling services as the first line of defence rather than over- prescribing pharmaceuticals for mental health concerns
- Encourage government agencies to work together on early intervention, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of mental health patients
- Ensure that the right balance is struck between inpatient and community care to prevent people becoming a danger to themselves and society, but with recovery within the community remaining the goal
- Fund child and youth mental health inpatient beds at a level sufficient to achieve the Blueprint for Mental Health Services in New Zealand target level
- Increase funding of drug, alcohol and mental health treatment for prison inmates
* Mana and ACT don't have mental health policies
- © Fairfax NZ News
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All parties have exactly the same suicide policies recommended by the Mental health profession and they are self evidently wrong. The cause of suicide is purely neurological and this is toltally ignored in all of their -policies. Trying to "treat" suicidal people who's life is self evidently at risk in the 'community' causes hundreds of deaths per year. Frontline and ongoing assessment is worse than at any period in the loast 250 years because the psychiatric profession have changed their care to the 'worried well'peter neame author of suicide and mental health in australia and new zealand
Anybody who works withing Mental Health knows that the problem is getting more common and also more dangerous. Mental health is a tricky subject but needs commitment and funding to prevent lives being ruined. Also due to the climate financially people are more likely to turn to alternative means of coping or activating mental instabilities due to pressures. Having had 2 close members of my family murdered by somebody with mental health issues I am all for pumping 4's into such a wise and worthy cause. NZ has a dangerous future ahead and the populations is a fraction of other countries with similar statistics.
I think that all parties are missing the all important 20 years + age group, its well documented that a large volume of mental illness starts when when people are in their 20s, Myself included. I have seen a few people, and touched upon the mental health services in this country. The biggest problems are 1) its very slow, you go to a GP asking for help and it can be months before a counselor gets in contact. The GP prescrives some drugs and send you on your way, but theres often little education about the drugs they prescribe, such as they fact they can make you worse for a few days and that you MUST keep taking them, yes its as importnat as physical health, if not more so. It also should be respected as such, it is however also far more complex.
Specialist Mental Health Service are being funded at a high level all ready....it is time to focus more of the funding in the Primary Sector, fund services to provide treatment and support to people in our communities before they become so unwell they require specialist, or secondary level care! Mental health services are far more than what is provided by Community Mental Health Teams, Emergency Teams and Inpatient Units. The GP's deal with mental health issues all the time, there are awesome Primary Mental HEalth Brief Intervetion Services out there that are under funded and under resoursed.
Someone tell Tony Ryall that this Govt, and previous 4 have all invested significant amounts of money in order to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with mental illness and then National goes and includes funding for "young offenders" as part of the mental health commitment?? How does that help the campaign?
None of the parties seem to be recognising that the major challenge for the next 40 years is the aging population. There are no initiatives mentioned for Older Adult mental health and nothing about developing NGO peer delivered services. These parties are just about delivering more of the same old stuff that hasn't been particularly effective in making real changes for people with mental illness or mental distress. Pretty sad and staid thinking, indicating a need for new policy advisors for all the parties.
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I work in mental health area and have done for the past 6 years. Over the past two years i have seen many organisations go under as the govt cut the funding which resulted in the doors closing. These organisations were making a difference in their lives. I myself had my hours cut as all my co workers i feel i have to take a different career path due to the lack of funding in this area of great need!