Tertiary mental health funding: 'Where has the money gone?'

The delivery of mental health services to tertiary students is in the spotlight after it emerged nearly $4 million of allocated funding only delivered 304 counselling sessions in two years.

The figures, covering up to December 31, 2021, come from Parliamentary questions National's spokesperson for mental health Matt Doocey put to Health Minister Andrew Little.

"This number includes individual sessions, group sessions and workshops, and refers to the number of sessions delivered rather than the number of people seen," said Little.

The Ministry of Health was unable to supply 1News with more up-to-date data.

Budget 2020 allocated growing funding for tertiary student mental health and wellbeing, rising from $2 million in 2020/21 to $10 million a year from 2023/24.

Little said as at January 31, $3,924,529.59 of the available funding had been spent.

"So you've got to ask yourself, where has the money gone?" Doocey questioned. "Why hasn't it made a difference? And why are services harder to access for people?

"Then you look at announcements like the $25 million announced to provide support for tertiary students. At the time the Government trumpeted this announcement saying it would accelerate support for over 300,000 tertiary students…What we find today, 20 months later, the Government has spent $4 million but only delivered 304 sessions to date."

On Thursday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he expects delivery.

"That is one initiative that is part of a whole suite of initiatives, and that was specifically targeted on counselling sessions on tertiary institutions.

"I've seen the figures. What I will say of course is the funding is there to set up a service and to be made available for those students, and of course the expectation from us is that is that the service is delivered."

A Ministry of Health spokesperson told 1News it would be "too simplistic" and misleading to use "a figure that divides the funding distributed by the number of sessions delivered".

"It also wrongly assumes all the funding has been spent by the tertiary institutes. It has taken the polytechs and universities time to establish new services, employ people and get the appropriate pathways in place to deliver these services.

"All providers have had to give consideration to how best to deliver services and support to students at a time when Covid-19 has disrupted campus life and a majority of teaching is taking place online.

"Demand for services significantly decreases over the summer break and we expect it to increase again now that the academic year has commenced. Funding that is sitting with the tertiary institutes that has not yet been spent on services will be applied to future service delivery - it is simply incorrect to imply that it will not be used to deliver services to students.

"Contracts were in place with all three universities with campuses in Auckland in time for the exam period at the end of 2021. There was some service delivery over this period, after which demand reduced considerably due to the summer break."

Hayden Wano, chairman of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission told Breakfast in March, transformational change will require "sustained, political leadership over some time", following an interim report by the commission.

"We are seeing small signs of hope and improvements but getting systemic change will take time and will take perseverance."

He said there is a significant demand coming from youth, where wait times for specialists is a pressure point.

He said it's not an easy situation to resolve due to the complexities that surround treating mental health and addiction.