Tauranga mental health and addiction worker Vaughan Cruickshank. Photo / Andrew Warner
Tauranga mental health and addiction worker Vaughan Cruickshank. Photo / Andrew Warner
"The most significant investment in this area in a long, long time, if not ever... and long overdue."
That was Bay mental health worker Vaughan Cruikshank's review of the Government's nearly $2 billion investment in mental health and addiction services.
The funding was one of the headline announcements as thefull Wellbeing Budget was revealed today.While it has been widely welcomed as a response to the recommendations from an inquiry into the sector last year, there were also some concerns about plans for services in schools.
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chairwoman Sally Webb said the funding boost was "excellent and well-needed".
She said the DHB would be working through specific plans for this region's portion of the funding with the Ministry of Health.
Webb commended plans to establish a new universal frontline mental health service.
"I think the frontline mental health service will grow into a really good initiative. There will be a need to train more qualified people."
Bay of Plenty District Health Board chairwoman Sally Webb. Photo / Alan Gibson
Cruikshank, team leader of Junction, a peer support and advocacy service in Greerton, said he hoped to see more people who had been through mental health and addiction trained to work in the sector.
People who had been there had the "lived experience" to avoid perpetrating stigmas that could be an intimidating barrier to those seeking help.
Hingatu Thompson, chief executive of the Manaaki Ora Trust in Rotorua - including Tipu Ora and Te Utuhina Manaakitanga Trust - said he was pleased to see a specific investment in suicide prevention.
He praised the boost for Whānau Ora, and said frontline resourcing needed to be proportionate to areas of greatest need, including investment in Māori health.
The Budget allocated $19.6 million to extend the nurses in schools programme to decile five secondary schools - mainly responding to mental health needs - and $2.2m for resources for teachers to encourage mental resilience in primary and intermediate schools.
Rotorua counsellor Huhana Pene focuses on child and youth mental health needs, as well as adults who are sexual abuse survivors.
She said all nurses responding to mental health needs needed to be trained in mental health specifically.
Rotorua counsellor Huhana Pene. Photo / Stephen Parker
"The intent is good, but teachers are not equipped to respond to these problems.
"We need funding for counsellors, psychotherapists and mental health nurses in schools, and they work with the teachers.
"These groups need to be in separate lanes according to what they are trained in."
She said the majority of adults she saw in as a counsellor had unresolved mental health issues from their childhood.
Western Bay of Plenty Principals' Association president Matt Skilton said there were students suffering from high levels of anxiety in all schools, at all levels, and the help on offer should not be defined by age or how much money their parents made.
Taking mental health seriously The record $1.9 billion total mental health package includes: · New universal frontline mental health service established, expected to help 325,000 people with mild to moderate mental health and addiction needs by 2023/24 ·$200 million extra for new and existing mental health and addiction facilities · Expanding the nurses in schools programme to decile five secondary schools – reaching an extra 5600 students ·$128.3 million for Department of Corrections to spend on mental health and addiction services · $197 million to tackle homelessness through Housing First. Source: Government
