10. Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
What steps, if any, is the Government taking to improve the mental health of New Zealanders?
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Associate Minister of Health) Link to this
This Government has increased its investment in mental health by 75 percent in nominal dollars and by 44 percent in real terms, since 1999. We have introduced mental health programmes, we have expanded forensic support, we have undertaken the most successful de-stigmatisation campaign in New Zealand’s history, and on Tuesday we released a widely supported 10-year action plan for the sector. The list goes on, but of course we still have more work to do.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
Why is it that when the Government has increased spending on specialist mental health services by nearly $1 billion per year, the number of hospitalisations for attempted suicide has soared by nearly 20 percent between 1999 and 2003 and, even worse, the rate for young women aged from 15 to 24 has increased by 45 percent?
I am sure the member, as a former general practitioner, knows that the causes and analysis of symptoms around suicide and the development of suicide statistics are an extraordinarily complex area. It is important to recognise that if we take the peak of suicides in New Zealand at around 1998, there has been a 15 percent reduction in suicides. Again, it is always easy to score political points on glasses being half empty, but this glass, in terms of suicide programmes from this Government, is at least half full, and it is about time some members recognised it.
Darien FentonI have received reports that the number of specialist psychiatrists and mental health nurses has grown by 26 percent since the election of this Government. There are now nearly 900 more mental health nurses working in our public health system than before 1999. That is what a Government can achieve when we invest in the health of our families instead of throwing money at reckless tax reductions.
Barbara StewartHow does the Minister plan to address the chronic staff shortages for adolescent patients within the mental health sector?
For a very long time—going back at least 20 or more years, and probably longer than that—the mental health system has been the Cinderella of the health system in New Zealand. That is true. And it has been difficult to obtain and train the skills we need, both at a psychiatric professional level and at a mental health nurses level. But as I have just said, this Government has made a greater step forward in the mental health system probably in the living memory of anyone in this House, and it is about time that that was acknowledged, at least for the truth that it is.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
How can the public have any real confidence in the Government’s ability to deal with the increase in attempted suicides when the Government response to the latest suicide statistics is to issue a press release that announces a plan to set up a task force to oversee an action plan to implement a strategy to release a detailed plan? [ Interruption]
Madam SPEAKERWhen in Opposition in this Parliament to the then National Government, I had the opportunity to ask the then Minister of Health for proper processes and budgets for a prevention of suicide strategy. Not one single dollar was available for that. This Government has put millions of dollars into it. If the member wants to investigate the facts of that I will be happy to educate him, because he is a relative newcomer here and he does not have a clue about the history of this issue.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
How can the public have any confidence that this Government is up to the task of improving the mental health of New Zealanders when the specifically listed action for promotion and prevention in the Government’s new 10-year mental health plan is to spend 3 years reviewing the strategic framework to develop a new framework to develop a plan to set out a strategy, and is this not just more plans, strategies, and waffle that will not impact on mental health rates at all?
This Government has invested $1,000 million additional funding in mental health; it has opened up resources and facilities all around the country for the young and not-so-young people affected; it has more staff professionally trained for the mental health system; and it has taken mental health into the public arena in terms of private general practice and the hospital system of New Zealand. It has done more for mental health than the National Party in its whole history in Government ever did, and it is about time that the member, who was a professional clinician, understood the reality of that. I am sure that he does and that he is making cheap political points in this House that do him no credit.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
How can we have any confidence in the 10-year mental health plan when we have cases such as that of Peter Waihape, who had a long history of involvement with mental health services, who abducted and raped a woman, who then approached a number of mental health agencies in Christchurch, at least one of which he told what he had done, was sent away, only to then kill a woman by repeatedly running over her in his car?
There is no one in this House or in New Zealand who would be satisfied with that kind of situation—of course. But I say to the member, who is a professional doctor, that he well knows that mental health patients are more likely to be victims than perpetrators of crime. If he recognised the reality of that, which is absolutely shown by all the statistics that I know, and I am sure he does too, he would pay more attention to clinical evidence than talkback shows, which is where he gets that kind of information.
Dr Jackie BlueHow is the 10-year plan going to address the critical shortage of New Zealand - trained rather than imported psychiatrists when fewer than 50 percent of our psychiatrists actually trained in New Zealand, and when it is well known that mental health workers should have a knowledge of our unique culture in order to be effective?
There is no question that the provision of professionally trained psychiatrists has been of significant difficulty for this country. But let me say—and I am sure the member knows—that it is of significant difficulty for every country in the world. One thing I do know is that the Government will have to put more funding into mental health and into the training of professional psychiatrists. That will not happen under parties that promise tax cuts to the richest New Zealanders, when Government expenditure is part and parcel of the answer.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
I seek leave to table documents showing an increase in hospitalisations for attempted suicide.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
I seek leave to table a press release announcing the plan to set up the task force to oversee the plan to implement the strategy to release the detail of that.