Mental health advocate: 'Not much' improvement despite $1.9b

An advocacy group says "not much" has improved in mental health since the Government allocated $1.9 billion in 2019 for mental wellbeing.

Meanwhile, the National Party continued to ask questions about where the funds had gone and what it had achieved.

Mental Health Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson told Breakfast that while some traction was being made since Budget 2019, which included the $1.9 billion package for mental wellbeing to be spent over the following years, change wasn't happening quickly enough.

"Not much has changed for many people at all. We really have not got the systematic change that we're looking for and a lot of time has been wasted," Robinson said.

He said while the figure "sounds like a lot of money", it only covered about half of what was needed to catch up to years of under funding.

While he acknowledged it could take years to build up services and the mental health workforce, "frankly, there's been too many dropped balls".

"You can't just throw money at services and magically grow new staff. It takes time to train staff, it takes time to set up services… expand them."

National's mental health spokesperson Matt Doocey had written to the Auditor-General to request an investigation into why the investment "has not resulted in any material improvements in mental health outcomes".

Doocey had also raised concerns about how money allocated to mental health services to tertiary students had been spent.

Party leader Christopher Luxon told Breakfast the Auditor-General's investigation was needed because "we haven't really gotten a straight answer" as to why the funding injection hadn't resulted in change.

National was supportive of the funding, but thought "success is outcomes", Luxon said.

He suggested partnering with community organisations to help improve outcomes, instead of the Government's approach of wanting to centralise things.

"We believe we should target on the basis of need," Luxon said of inequities the report highlighted in mental health outcomes for Māori.

National also continued to push for a dedicated Mental Health Minister.

It comes after the latest findings of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. The commission's report, released in March, found that pressures on specialist services continued and there had been no significant reduction in wait times. That was amid the growing demand for mental health help.

It also found there had been no change to specialist mental health services in five years, despite the Government's additional funding from 2019. There was a particular concern for wait times for youth, as well as for services for Pasifika and Māori.

The report noted the Government had made "a promising start" to addressing recommendations made in the Government's 2018 He Ara Oranga inquiry into mental health and addiction with the $1.9 billion funding package.

"It will take some time for this investment to translate into services in the community. There is an understandable lag between the new services being commissioned and getting up and running, and challenges in recruiting and retaining the workforce required impacts this," the report said.

It also said the measures it used in the report "only provide a partial view of this new investment" because it looked at services "in which there has not been significant recent investment, particularly specialist mental health services".

In a statement to 1News, Little said improvements had already been made to wait times and access.

He said part of this was through the Government's Access and Choice programme, which focused on providing free mental health support for people with mild to moderate needs with minimal to no wait times. This received $455 million in funding in Budget 2019, to be spent over four years.

This programme wasn't included in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission's assessment in March but was found to be on track overall in another report by the commission. But, that report noted more attention was required to develop services tailored for Māori, Pasifika and youth.

Little said the programme had delivered services to more than 17,500 people in January this year alone.

"People with mild to moderate mental health issues are seeing health improvement practitioners and health coaches and getting the help and support that they need and that is making a difference."

As for the $1.9 billion investment, Little said the money was always intended to roll out over four years after 2019.

He said the investment would start small in key infrastructure and ramp up over time.

"We now have roughly 900 full-time equivalent roles in place, in GP clinics, located within Māori health providers, with Pacific health services and in youth health services but recruiting people into those roles was always going to be a challenge. That's why we said it will take time to ramp up.”

The upcoming health reforms - which would see the country's DHBs scrapped in favour of a new national organisation and a Māori Health Authority - would also make it easier to access more mental health services across the country, Little said.

"If you can't get into a service in your town, then it'll be easier if you need help or support to get that in another part of the country where it is available.

"So, that will make a difference in terms of waiting times and access."

When asked about National's push for an investigation by the Auditor-General, Little said it wasn't needed "and the request for that is a political stunt".

He said the investment programme had already been subject to multiple reviews, including by the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

He said the Auditor-General had already been reviewing DHBs' work in mental health "so there is nothing to gain from any other investigation by the Auditor-General".

When asked if there would be more funding for mental health in Budget 2022, Little said he couldn't foreshadow what would be in it, but that the Government had shown in the past "it is serious about mental health".

Little told Q+A last year the Government had already ticked off big-ticket items with the funds, including setting up a Mental Heath and Wellbeing Commission, a Suicide Prevention Office and devising a Suicide Prevention strategy.

Last month, the Government launched a two-year recruitment drive for nurses to specialise in mental health.