If the Minister is ever to break out of the ‘Yes Minister’ straightjacket in mental health, he must turn to the community, to service users and to coalface mental health workers for his advice (and by that we don’t mean a raft of self-interested psychiatrists currently employed by DHBs around the country).
A young Greymouth man attempted suicide while in the midst of a possible cannabis-induced psychotic episode; but rather than a mental health crisis team arriving, Caleb – fighting for his life at that point – is attended by Police, who help resuscitate him and then find two cannabis plants in his back yard.
Still feeling a warm glow of satisfaction over Labour Weekend following the ousting of former Health Minister Jonathan Coleman, whose inaction on mental health and suicide was legendary, I was brought down to earth sharply by a story published on Labour Day about Jonny – a young male Christchurch suicide victim.
Two current Radio NZ stories in quick succession have shown the strong link between some suicides and bullying. In one, an MSD investigator wrongly told a beneficiary she had been overpaid $22,000 and that she would be prosecuted to recover the money – less than a day later she was a suicide victim, yet the MSD shortly afterwards told the victim’s mother that the claimed debt was incorrect, and it was eventually waived.
Two days after two hikoi of 579 pairs of shoes (each) set off simultaneously from Cape Reinga and Bluff, bound for Parliament’s hallowed steps, the Chief Coroner announced the latest suicide figures for the 2017 financial year: 606.
A Waikato DHB member has criticised his DHB’s Chair and the Minister of Health for claiming in media interviews that Waikato DHB will be returning a ‘break-even’ budget for the 2017/8 year.
The attitude of Professor Annette Beautrais, of Canterbury University, and a suicide prevention co-ordinator for the South Canterbury DHB, is one of the primary reasons why it has been so hard to change the culture of silence about suicide, where news of it, and issues about it are swept under the carpet.
Despite strong feedback from the public, political parties are still mostly shying clear from campaigning on mental health and suicide issues in the election campaign.
Mental health workforce shortage statistics published this week demonstrate a staffing deficit that will surprise no-one except Health Minister Jonathan Coleman. But what they don’t show is the major culture change needed within that workforce that will also be needed to make a real difference to the effectiveness of this country’s mental health system.
Dear Waikato DHB Board members – attached is a link to an article published today by Stuff in which the Director of Mental Health at the Ministry of Health, Dr John Crawshaw, made the following points in respect of smoking by inpatients at DHBs’ mental health units: