Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey speak to the media. Video / NZ Herald
The Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey is confident the Government’s five mental health and addiction targets are achievable, despite the fact data has never been collected concerning three of the targets.
It follows the Government welcoming applications later this month for “innovative” initiatives to address Kiwis’ mental health and addiction challenges with the Prime Minister saying he would consider increasing funding if services were achieving good results.
On Sunday, the Herald reported how the Government’s Policy Statement on health - essentially a roadmap for how the Government wanted to spend about $85 billion in the public health system over three years - revealed five targets on mental health and addiction.
They are:
1. 80% of people accessing specialist mental health and addiction services being seen within three weeks.
5. Allocating 25% of mental health and addiction investment towards prevention and early intervention.
In an interview with the Herald, Doocey explained data had never been collected concerning the second and third targets. He said there had been some analysis of access to specialist services (the first target), but he’d been advised there were “data quality issues”.
“We will need to move at speed to set up the data monitoring and ensuring data quality as well.”
Asked how he’d decided 80% was appropriate for the second target, Doocey claimed it was a common practice to select 80% when setting health-related targets, indicating the threshold was largely arbitrary.
There was also a lack of oversight regarding how much of previous mental health budgets had gone towards prevention and early intervention.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey was to speak more about the targets today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In the latest Budget, the Government had increased mental health spending to $2.6b. That meant $650 million would have to be spent on prevention and early intervention measures to meet the fifth target.
On the workforce target, Doocey said he’d been assured by officials training 500 staff per year could be achieved within baseline funding. Currently, about 428 staff were trained annually. He wouldn’t reveal how much more it would cost, saying that would be detailed in an upcoming mental health and addiction workforce plan.
“I’m confident we can reach all of those targets, there’ll just be a piece of work of establishing when we haven’t had targets before,” Doocey said.
Today, Doocey and PM Christopher Luxon also announced applications for the Government’s $10m fund for innovative mental health and addiction initiatives could be submitted from later this month.
The criteria for successful proposals, assessed by an independent, Health NZ-appointed panel, was:
Increasing access to mental health and addiction support
Protecting public specialist mental health and addiction services by reducing demand
Developing capacity in the mental health and addiction workforce
Using technology to drive productivity
Delivering scalable solutions for unmet need
Returning positive social return on investment with evidence
Achieving positive outcomes for target population groups that have evidence of poorer mental health outcomes than other groups
Being co-funded on a dollar-for-dollar matched funding basis
The fund would be open to all non-governmental organisations and community mental health and addiction providers, including iwi-based and other kaupapa Māori providers.
Organisations could receive up to $1m per year per initiative.
The full submission criteria and proposal process would be published on the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS) website by the end of July, with contracts for round one expected to be in place later this year.
Ahead of the 2023 election, National promised up to $20m for the fund.
Doocey explained the $10m was over two years. He guaranteed the remaining $10m in the following two years. Asked why they’d only referenced the $10m, Doocey said: “That was the funding we had available at the moment.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon making the mental health announcement at Middlemore Hospital in Auckland today. Photo / Dean Purcell
He reiterated Luxon’s comments that successful organisations could receive further funding.
“If they show they are delivering, we’re more than happy to support them further.”
Doocey said e-therapies - where patients engaged with services via apps or other online methods - were examples of the kind of innovation the fund was intended to support.
Labour mental health spokeswoman Ingrid Leary welcomed the funding but warned of the impact of workforce shortages and National’s own record delivering on its commitments.
“Promising 500 new mental health workers a year but failing to fund the 50 additional places for doctors to train at university as promised throughout the campaign period shows National doesn’t keep their word when it comes to health,” she said.
“It’s one thing to make these promises about mental health, but we need to make sure that they are delivered on.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
