The Premium Debate: Subscribers weigh in on the state of the region’s mental health support

The Bay of Plenty is seeing a “higher-than-national-average rate” of young people accessing mental health support.

The number of children waiting for mental health support has more than tripled in Tauranga, and has more than doubled in Rotorua. This comes as one agency says there is a “woeful lack of services” in Rotorua for children needing support, while the Bay of Plenty is seeing a “higher-than-national-average rate” of young people accessing mental health support, while the hospital’s service is struggling to employ clinicians as “demand outweighs supply”.

Read the full stories:

Children’s mental health: Anxiety, neurodiversity contributing to ‘high’ demand for support in Tauranga.

Rotorua children’s mental health: Referrals to hospital service drop, appointment wait time increases.

Have your say by going to bayofplentytimes.co.nz or dailypost.co.nz and becoming a Premium subscriber.

This all plays into lower educational achievement and is a major reason teachers are striking. Mental health/anxiety/trauma has a very, very significant part to play in classroom dynamics and how much teaching/learning occurs in the school day (or not). It plays a huge part in teacher wellbeing/their mental health too, and there is little training for teachers who basically have to deal with stuff, of which they may have little knowledge/training/support to [use to] support students. Non-attendance/truancy is another fallout of this.

Kimberly A

$1 billion was pumped into the health system for mental health by Labour. Where has the money gone? Where is the accountabity? Please interview the former and current Health Ministers to get the bottom of this issue.

Fraser T

I love that Government ministers always tell us how much money they have spent, but never what they actually achieved for it.

Potter O

It’s frustrating to see the situation getting worse after the Government spent more money on mental health. I think the current approach will make it worse. Children need to have tough love to grow up. They need to have discipline, tasks and reality checks. Not just nice words and endless praise.

Paul S

This is our country’s greatest disgrace. No one should accept this outcome, and the fact that Mike King and others get so little support from the Government is completely unacceptable. National have promised funding for these charities doing the mahi that the Government seem unable to do. That gets my vote. End of story.

Jo M

This Government has betrayed so many so badly, but our future generations have been smashed the worst. From their poor educations/lack of any meaningful educations, they have been dished up to their unsafe neighbourhoods, and then [with] their completely undermined and broken healthcare availability, it is no wonder this group of young NZers feel so lost and duped.

Shame on you Labour/Greens.

Mark C

It must be very costly for the country to provide all these services, particularly since demand for them is rising so sharply. As a major contributor to the decline in the mental health of our children is social media, it’s time we started to tax these massive multi-national corporations to pay for it. These companies are in many ways the modern equivalent of big tobacco, and should be treated as such. That is, that they provide a product that is harmful to health and they are taxed heavily because of it.

David B

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