Chronic mental health underfunding ironically highlights the need for Gumboot Friday
Mental Health Foundation calls for action on hundreds of unfilled vacancies
The mental health and addictions workforce is in crisis, with hundreds of unfilled vacancies leading to stressed and over-worked staff and patients unable to receive the help they need, medical professionals say.
Figures obtained by Checkpoint show there were about 650 mental health and addictions vacancies at Health New Zealand.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the high number was frustrating.
“It’s not good enough and it really reflects decades of neglect and lack of planning around mental health, across multiple governments, and particularly around workforce.
“It makes me sad. It makes me angry.”
This debate all takes place in the shadow of the 611 suicides last year – the vast majority of whom are male.
The Ministry claims it takes 3 weeks before you can see a mental health expert, anecdotal evidence is that it takes at least 6 weeks.
Ironically this is why Gumboot Fridays is so essential, they provide 2 immediate and free counselling services rather than the 6 week delay, a delay that demands the concept of mental health.
This is why we need the Gumboot Friday AND better mental health service provision.
Talking of mental health, we urgently require a new mental heath first responder infrastructure…
Health workers worried about violence as police pull back on mental health callouts
Health New Zealand is scrambling to bring in new ways to cope with people in mental health distress from Monday, as police pull back from non-emergency mental health callouts.
It issued new procedures to health staff aimed primarily at patient and worker safety a few days ago. This was followed on Friday by an update it said to “share urgently”, just 72 hours ahead of implementing the untested changes.
Health workers have expressed worries that they – and patients – will be exposed to more violence with less police backup.
Police say they have no choice but to pull back as mental health callouts are cutting into their crime-fighting duties.
The government said Monday’s first phase had been carefully planned to “stand up a workforce” to fill the gap left by police, who began gradually pulling back in recent weeks at the same time as trialling a new way of prioritising non-emergency calls.
Health NZ issued staff with three new mechanisms, called Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), that will apply from Monday.
The Police are a blunt force trauma to mental health call outs…
Taser use on mentally ill people doubles: ‘It just beggars belief’
Mental health advocates have slammed the high use of tasers on people in crisis as a damning indictment on a health system which has left police as the default emergency responder.
New research shows more than half of people tasered by police are mentally ill, in distress or suicidal.
The report, commissioned by police as part of a wider investigation into bias within the ranks, found:
- Taser use during mental health calls-out had doubled since 2017
- 54 percent of people tasered between July and December 2022 were in mental distress, mentally unwell or suicidal
- People in mental health residences or in-patient units were tasered on four occasions
- Data on the mental state of those tasered was poor, with written reports often failing to mention mental distress that was evident from body camera footage
- Some police were using a taser as a “compliance” tool
- People clearly experiencing distress were deemed “non-compliant” (rather than unwell or unable to follow instructions)
- Police were unwilling to approach individuals they perceived to be unwell, seeing them as “unpredictable”.
…Police should not be the ones sent in to deal with people having a mental health episode, we need specially trained ‘First responder mental health teams’ who have the resources and skill set to de-escalate a situation and get a person the help they need.
Real wrap around social services provided after the call out.
A genuine attempt to heal and help people rather than criminalise them.
You know, solutions rather than counter productive damage.
The problem is that the entire mental health industry is horrifically underfunded and we have dumped them onto the Police, when the Police don’t have the skill set to deal with them.
We need our Police actually countering crime, not wasting their time on mental health call outs which they are more likely to exacerbate than help.
To do this requires enormous investment and a whole new branch of emergency response and with a Government focused on a $2.9b tax break for the richest landlords alongside $14billion in unfordable tax cuts, there is no way of that happening.
The system is now in collapse and the way National have manufactured a cost crisis in Health by purposely underfunding health means things are doomed to become more oppressive for the poorest and most vulnerable.
The safety net has become a noose.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
“54 percent of people tasered between July and December 2022 were in mental distress, mentally unwell or suicidal”
If tasers are being used on mental health patients more than on criminals then may be revoke the tasers.
That $2.9billion landlord tax break. What is the community loss? Let’s break it down.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/124320645/nearly-80-per-cent-of-landlords-own-just-one-property-data-shows
440,000 private rental properties.
120,000 private landlords
94,000 rental properties owned by mom and pops with just one rental
346,000 rentals owned by 26,000 landlords with multiple properties.
80% of the rental properties are owned by just 26,000 landlords.
26,000 landlords received 80% of $2.9billion on average that’s $89,230 each.
Just enough to pay an extra 26,000 mental health nurses an $89,230 salary.
Thanks Joseph – good figures, stats and I presume accurate.
But a neighbour who wants to borrow money from me makes conversation with me this morning “What do you think about the US election.” I reply that I can’t be bothered thinking about it. We have so much fantasmagoria presented to us pushed at us, all the time we can’t concentrate on our own situation.
That’s the present way of our ‘intelligent’ societies. Our intelligence is misused. Actually we are tall chooks, fed enough corn to produce some eggs which are removed. But bad news amongst the news mass, there is a horrible wave of bird flu moving around the world, because we are all one happy family aren’t we. And the world very largely relies on chickens and eggs for food. And after centuries we still haven’t definitely decided on what came first – the chicken or the egg. I think I’m going demental!!
The money should not have been taken I the first place.Being a landlord is a business and businesses get tax breaks because they are investing their money not just putting on the bank. Being a landlord is hard work and not always profitable. These landlords had a business plan based on the tax system that suddenly changed due to Labour and left many in debt and forced to sell.
Bullshit Trevor. Their plan was to make a capital gain which is supposed to be taxable if that was the intent. Why do you think they put up with “the hard work”. It’s a lie for most to say they bought the property for any other reason
I read Future Shock by Alvin Toffler as a teenager – 40 years later and it’s starting to make sense.
I read The Limits to Growth in my 20’s – 30 years later and it’s starting to make sense
The rate of change and the rates of depletion will leave a lot of carnage – be prepared.
it’s impossible in a captured system bent by greed and hoarding – opt out – in NZ you can still get by on your wits and a bit of graft. Leave toxic modernity behind and go rent an abandoned house on the East Coast, West Coast, Central Plateau, Marokopa.