Segar House Is A Rare Silver Bullet - It Must Be Expanded, Not Shut Down!

Of all the shitty things this Government has done, this may well be the worst…

Auckland intensive mental health service proposed to close

The proposed closure of an intensive mental health service is “insulting nonsense”, according to one advocate, and news to the minister in charge, who found out on the day The Post put in a request for comment.

Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ proposed earlier this month to close Segar House ‒ its Auckland-based tertiary level specialist psychotherapy service ‒ and redistribute the services and funding.

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey had not been told of the proposal until Thursday.

In the change document, which was leaked to psychotherapist, broadcaster and former Segar employee Kyle MacDonald, it proposes to disestablish the programme, re-invest the resources into community mental health teams and redeploy staff.

“It’s insulting nonsense,“ MacDonald said. ”Frankly, I think it’s going to put people’s lives at risk.“

…Segar House is one of the very few jewels in the crown of our mental health service.

I have known people whose lives and wellbeing were only achievable in a specialist centre like Segar, what is being proposed here is to smash the last remaining crown jewel so that Te Whatu Ora can sprinkle that smashed jewel as far and wide as possible because of intense budget and hiring pressures.

That the Minister was even aware of the decision is shameful.

I think this is a terrible, terrible, terrible decision that will cost far more money and damage many, many, many lives.

Segar House is one of only 2 live in centres like this, the other is in Dunedin.

It is a 24 hour lived in programme that helps the most damaged in society learn to live in the community!

These are people with enormous mental health issues and problems, if they are not in Segar House they are losing it in public and either damaging themselves or others.

You see their cost explode in ACC, the Police call outs, the ambulance call outs, the hospital costs and the judiciary costs!

Segar House is one of the few silver bullets we have, it desperately needs to be expanded NOT SHUT DOWN!

The argument that these desperately broken mental health patients will be somehow magically saved in the community by splitting Segar House up and spreading the specialists around is a fucking joke! These patients have ended up at Segar House because the Community can’t help them!

These patients will immediately choke up the crisis services and that will simply metastasise negatively in a. billion different ways.

Shutting Segar House is an obscenity of an idea, and it must be opposed at every step.

Labour, the Greens and the Māori Party must all make an immediate statement that they will rescind this decision and immediately seek to re-establish a far larger Segar House

This is a terrible, terrible, terrible idea.

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