Specialist mental health services for young people in the Health New Zealand Lakes region have been reduced because of recruiting issues. Photo / 123rf
Specialist mental health services for young people in the Health New Zealand Lakes region have been reduced because of recruiting issues. Photo / 123rf
Specialist mental health services for young people in the Health New Zealand Lakes region have been reduced due to recruiting issues.
Only one on-site clinic per week will be held in Rotorua, supplemented by telehealth sessions.
Health NZ has struggled to temporarily or permanently fill two psychiatrist vacancies.
Specialist mental health services for Lakes region children and youth have been drastically reduced because of “significant” issues recruiting psychiatrists, a memo reveals.
A Health New Zealand Lakes memo, seen by the Rotorua Daily Post, said medical cover for infant, child and adolescent mental health services reduced by 90% fromApril 28.
There would be “only one on-site clinic” per week in Rotorua supplemented by a weekly clinic with a child and adolescent psychiatrist on telehealth.
The April 28 memo was sent by Lakes mental health and addiction services manager Esthe Davis to general practitioners, health, social, education, youth, and community service providers, Oranga Tamariki, and the Ministry of Education.
In the memo, Davis said Health NZ was trying to find “more satisfactory solutions for psychiatrist cover”.
“The significant difficulties we have had to secure cover for the two child and adolescent psychiatrist vacancies, including lack of locum cover, has been escalated regionally and nationally.”
It had found medium-term locum cover (up to six months) but “this is no longer the case”.
Davis said Health NZ had made several offers for permanent positions and one had been accepted, but the overseas doctor could not arrive until early next year, “at best”.
“We have naturally had to shift our model of care to provide a broader multi-disciplinary team approach, reserving medical review for the most urgent needs only.”
Davis said mental health services for infants, children, and adolescents continued to be open for referrals but expectations regarding wait times had to be managed.
“We will advise referrers and whānau at the point of referral of any expected delays.”
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Lakes operations group director Alan Wilson told the Rotorua Daily Post it acknowledged that for children, young people and their whānau, waiting for any kind of mental health care was difficult.
“We are working to address this situation.”
Wilson said psychiatrists, particularly those specialising in this area, were in “short supply”.
There was “significant” work under way to increase the agency’s mental health and addictions workforce across the country.
Health NZ Te Whatu Ora Lakes operations group director Alan Wilson. Photo / Laura Smith
Health NZ was also exploring how it could better share services regionally, including in-person and virtual support, “for more equitable access for all our communities and young people”, he said.
In the Lakes district, 563 infants, children, and adolescents were in Health NZ’s care.
There were 42 referrals waiting to be seen. Many may only require assessment and review but others would need more specialist care, Wilson said.
“Our patients are prioritised based on urgency and, while there may be delays seeing a doctor, assessment and treatment by a psychologist or specialist nurse will continue.”
Wilson said an on-site clinic would continue in Rotorua each week, and it was using a child and adolescent psychiatrist on telehealth “whenever we can”.
A range of other services were available in the community for young people with “mild to moderate” mental health conditions, including the Lakes-managed Mana Ake programme in schools aimed at prevention and, where required, assisting with referrals to the right service, he said.
Wilson said it was actively recruiting to fill its two vacant specialist positions.
“We are pursuing every option to find locum cover and have reached out to other hospitals in the region to increase the services we can provide as soon as possible.”
The Rotorua Daily Post approached Health NZ seeking to clarify what specific services had been lost in the 90% reduction.
The Healthpoint website stated Health NZ Lakes had two infant, child and adolescent mental health service teams – one at the Children’s Health Hub on Haupapa St for the Rotorua community, and one at Taupō Hospital for the Taupō, Tūrangi and Mangakino communities.
Health NZ has not responded to questions about what services were available before the reduction, if the Taupō service had been cut, where the one on-site clinic would be in Rotorua, and how this would be delivered.
The Government has committed to speeding up access to specialist mental health and addiction services, and has set a target of training 500 professionals in the field every year.
A draft mental health and addiction workforce report estimated New Zealand needed 1485 workers in the field, including 470 specialist nurses, 145 psychiatrists and 145 clinical psychologists.
It was revealed last week those figures were omitted from the final report in September.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and the Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
