Auckland health board to turn down $3m grant for mental health

The Auckland District Health Board will turn down a $3 million Government grant because it cannot spend all its new mental health money.

The board's mental health service can care for only about 70 per cent of severely mental ill people in its area. But it cannot spend the money designed to improve services, mainly because of shortages of psychiatrists, nurses and other staff.

Some of the new money has been building in the board's coffers for years, totalling nearly $18 million for this financial year and the last. The board's annual mental health budget is $109 million, including $35 million for non-Government providers.

Among projects to soak up the money are monitoring non-Government providers, internships to aid recruitment, and appointing two specialists in maternal mental health.

Funding and planning manager Denis Jury said spending the accumulated funds was a one-off.

The $3 million may be divvied up among other health boards and the Health Ministry said Counties Manukau and Waitemata would be the top priorities. They are already drawing up lists of what they will spend the money on.

"We are waiting quietly in anticipation," said Waitemata chief executive Dwayne Crombie. "Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

New money for implementing the state's mental health service "Blueprint" can be spent only on new services approved by the Government. Expanding existing hospital-based services does not generally qualify.

A paper by Auckland board officials says new funding is aimed mainly at community services.

"This strategy aims to address mental health problems earlier and to provide effective, flexible support post-discharge as a method of driving down acute demand."

Underspending of mental health grants has been a perpetual problem for some boards, reaching nearly $17 million in 2004-05. Mental health money is not permitted to be spent on other areas of health care.