This story discusses sensitive topics.
A new mental health service announced by the government has been praised by New Zealand’s own Mental Health Foundation.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announced a new service, aimed at bringing down the number of people presenting to emergency departments with mental health issues, would be trialled this year.
In a statement this morning, Minister Doocey said the aim was to improve outcomes for people in crisis and free up clinical staff at hospitals to focus on clinical issues.
“We know that at least between 13,000 and 14,600 people present annually to emergency departments (EDs) with mental health issues. However, with a lack of reliable data, this number is likely to be higher.”
Matt Doocey is Aotearoa New Zealand’s first mental health minister, and says many in the sector, “want to see peer support specialists playing a greater role in helping to address some of the challenges faced by our mental health services.”
Peer support specialists offer help to those who struggle with mental health, psychological trauma, or substance use, and often have lived experience that professional training can’t replicate.
The trial, expected to start in June, will begin in four as-yet unnamed hospitals.
Doocey anticipates it will cost between $300,000 and $500,000 per hospital, per year.
“We know EDs have become a bottleneck for a variety of issues including mental health... This work will go some way to untangling that,” Doocey said in a statement.
A further four hospitals will start the programme in the second year of the trial, which Doocey says will roll out to all hospitals if successful.
Last month, Doocey committed to a “by Māori, for Māori” approach to mental health treatment, as Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora data confirmed the number for Māori suicides remains nearly double that for non-Māori.
Mental Health Foundation ‘delighted’
The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand (MHF) applauded the announcements, calling it, “a solution long advocated for by the MHF and others in the sector.”
“Investing in peer support in emergency departments is a creative move, and a smart move,” MHF chief executive Shaun Robinson said in a statement this morning.
Robinson says the foundation wants to see peer support integrated throughout the sector, which he says, “has the potential to benefit the whole mental health and addiction system”.