Turner Judy: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Turner Judy: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:613;Page:10233] 
9.  
JUDY TURNER (United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Health 
: Is she satisfied with the progress made over the past year towards providing more and better services for the 3 percent of people experiencing serious mental disorders as called for in the national mental health strategy? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Progress towards the national mental health strategy is monitored by the Mental Health Commission an independent body. In its last report it noted that although progress had been made in areas like funding which increased by 5.5 percent over the previous year in areas like alcohol and drug services and forensic services in the number of community mental health workers and in the matter of quality progress was still being hindered by workforce shortages. I agree with its findings. 
Judy Turner 
: In light of the fact that mental health funding increased as mentioned by 5.5 percent over the last year but that the Mental Health Commission reports that people’s ability to access those services has not improved what steps has the Minister taken to ensure that increased funding will have measurable results in the future? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The Mental Health Commission points out in its report that the reason we have problems in terms of greater access—even though we have more funding and more services in the particular area—remains the problem of a trained workforce. Some of the mental health blueprint money is set aside for workforce development and I think that one of the very good things that has happened in this last year is the establishment of the John Werry centre for the training of mental health workers for children and adolescents—an area where we have been sadly lacking. 
Dave Hereora 
: What progress has been made towards implementing the blueprint’s recommendations? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Between 1999-2000 and 2002-03 the blueprint has moved from a 58 percent to a 69 percent rate of implementation across the country. This growth path will continue into the future as the Government has committed itself to implementing the blueprint fully. 
Dr Lynda Scott 
: Why is nothing being done to improve family involvement in the assessment care and discharge planning of psychiatric patients which was demonstrated to be so woefully inadequate in the tragic cases of Mark Burton Peter Ellis and Chad Buckle ? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The member will be aware that following a tragedy in Auckland I had the Mental Health Commission undertake a review in terms of what information was provided to families. Following that review there was the development of guidelines for that situation and district health boards have been provided with those guidelines. Where the problem exists is in their implementation and certainly the Mental Health Commission is monitoring that very closely. 
Ron Mark 
: If progress is so good why then when the daughter of a mental health patient questioned after-hours support at the Seager Clinic of Princess Margaret Hospital yesterday did the unit manager tell her that they did not have “a duty doctor on after hours on weekdays”; and why when that same woman asked what she should do if there was an emergency during the night did the unit manager tell her to “contact after-hours emergency’’—what sort of logic is that? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The provision of mental health services in New Zealand as I have already said is continually hindered by workforce shortages. We are certainly doing our best to improve them particularly in the area of psychiatrists because as the member is probably aware it takes 15 years to train a psychiatrist so they cannot be materialised overnight. We are putting a lot of emphasis on that. However if a person is very unwell it is not something to be alarmed about if they are referred to an emergency department at a hospital because once they go into an emergency department they can be assessed and put into the appropriate place. 
Judy Turner 
: Does the Minister agree with concerns raised by the Mental Health Commission in its last two annual reports that “critical mental health issues were frequently not identified or addressed” in district health board planning and that the financial information available was not sufficiently robust; if so how does she plan to address this problem? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes I do agree with the Mental Health Commission that statistics and information from district health boards were not good enough. In fact a lot of effort is going in to improve the information that is required for good planning and good monitoring. I am pleased to say that we are now provided with considerably more information and that the Mental Health Commission has the ability every quarter to look at how district health boards are spending their money where they are underspending or overspending and are able to provide me with regular quarterly reports. 
Judy Turner 
: Noting that the Mental Health Commission report states that overall there was no growth in child and youth mental health services during 2001-02 and that clinicians in this field report that they are only able to engage in limited interventions for the most critical cases what is the Minister doing to address growing concerns about the state of child and adolescent mental health services? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Since the report of 2001-02 there has been improvement in access to child and youth inpatient capacity with the opening of the new youth unit here in Wellington and the new unit at the Starship Children’s Hospital. But the member is correct there are still problems as I identified earlier in child and adolescent mental health services and part of that problem is that we have not had a specialist trained workforce for children and adolescents. The Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health which opened this year and has started training will considerably help that.