New Zealand's new mental health front line service needs about 1600 more workers over the first five years of its establishment.
Budget 2019 saw a $455 million injection for 325,000 people to access support by 2023/24 through a new mental health service, putting trained mental health workers into health services such as GP clinics and iwi health providers.
"Ensuring New Zealanders can now just show up at their GP or health clinic and get expert mental health support is a critical first step" Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday.
"We know workforce is one of the things we need to invest in. This Budget acknowledges that. We've given ourselves a time frame to roll out these services across the country, it will take time to build up the workforce, but we've designed it that way," Ms Ardern said today.
Health Minister David Clark said New Zealand would build its own workforce.
Of the 1600 more workers needed over the first five years of the programme, a quarter would need to be newly trained, Dr Clark said.
"It is ambitious but we make no apologies for this... we're growing these workforces... but we're up for it."
In terms of building up the workforce, Ms Ardern hoped changing perceptions around mental health would attract more people to the profession.
"New Zealand, I hope, is starting to forge a bit of a path here where we will be a country known where we're de-stigmatising mental health, where we talk openly about mental health, where we treat it as a health issue," she said.
"I hope in the course of doing that we will attract people into the work force who will see the difference in people's lives, who may themselves have their own experience in mental health because we know that can enhance the role they can play as their role as a mental health worker."
"What we're planning, intending to do for mental health in this country, it will change people's lives, I absolutely believe that. There is a missing middle where there just were not services available and this government and this budget will change that."
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While National leader Simon Bridges said the Budget did "not live up to its hype," he did commend the $1.9 billion investment into mental health.
"The reality is what they’ve done is good, there is smoke and mirrors there though. For example, in that $1.9 billion you talk about you’ve got Housing First which was a National Party policy.
"Now would you really say that was mental health?"
Mr Bridges said it was a case of "double counting" but he was not critical of "that part of the Budget."
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