Street Maryan: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Street Maryan: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11000] 
MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to speak to the third reading of the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill. I wish to develop further perhaps some of the points made by the previous speaker Tony Ryall. 
This bill represents a further step forward in the development of the mental health sector. It recognises that the environment has changed since the national mental health strategy was first published in June 1994. When  
Looking Forward: Strategic Directions for the Mental Health Services 
 was published the sector was in some turmoil as evidenced by the establishment of the Mason inquiry in late 1995. The mental health sector has matured since then and the roles of the commission in the mid-1990s can safely be refocused. For example there has been substantial progress made in the development of the mental health and addictions workforce and I will make some comments about that workforce in the first instance before moving on to a specific thing that I wish to cover. 
Collectively the ministry district health boards and non-governmental organisations are working towards developing a mental health and addictions workforce that has the knowledge the skills and the attitude required to deliver the services that New Zealanders need. The ministry is leading the implementation of  
Tauawhitia te Wero 
— 
Embracing the Challenge: National Mental Health and Addiction Workforce Development Plan 2006-2009 
. The ministry’s funding of workforce development initiatives is aligned with the District Health Boards New Zealand’s sector-wide workforce action plan. A nationwide structure has been established through which workforce initiatives are delivered and this structure is primarily based on four non-governmental organisations. 
There is Te Pou the National Centre of Mental Health Research and Workforce Development which has a work programme that addresses areas such as worker competencies national training needs recruitment and service development. There is Te Rau Matatini which has a focus on increasing the responsiveness of services to the needs of Maori while also promoting careers in health and mental health as rewarding careers for Maori. There is the Werry Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health which is located within the University of Auckland’s Department of Psychological Medicine and which works to apply best practice to the skills development of providers of mental health services for New Zealand’s children and young people. There is Matua Raki delivered by the National Addiction Centre at the Christchurch school of medicine and health sciences which has a focus on the infrastructure for the development of a workforce for alcohol and other addictions. It has a commitment to research and evaluation as well. The Ministry of Health also distributes funding for workforce training via the clinical training agency for post-entry clinical training and psychiatry training. Through its extension in this bill the Mental Health Commission will be able to contribute to the workforce initiatives I have just referred to and a statutory requirement for this is necessary. 
I want to speak also about an issue that was raised in the course of the second reading of this bill. There was a degree of misinformation put forward by the Opposition about suicide and suicide statistics and about efforts that have been made through the mental health workforce and the mental health initiatives of this Government to bring down the disturbing trend of suicides that we have seen in past years in this country. I would like to inform the debate with some facts as opposed to the inaccurate assertions promulgated by the Opposition in this area and a few facts will not go amiss. 
The suicide rate in New Zealand for the years between 2002 and 2004 for example for which we have the statistics has decreased by nearly 20 percent from that of 1996 to 1998—by 19.6 percent in fact in case people think I am exaggerating by rounding the figure up to 20 percent. It is true that males continue to have a higher suicide rate than females with approximately three male suicides to every female suicide. It is also true that Maori suicide rates for both males and females are significantly higher than for non-Maori. But it is important to note that Maori suicide rates have decreased by 17.9 percent—or by about 18 percent—in the early 2000s from those recorded in the late 1990s. Similarly the very significant male suicide rate has decreased by nearly 23 percent since the late 1990s. The female rate of suicide also remains less than before although there has been some levelling off of that rate of improvement. 
The previous speaker referred to the need for mental health services to consider the needs of families. That is absolutely right and that is a commitment and a direction for the Labour-led Government in the delivery of mental health services. So the kind of unsubstantiated nonsense that we have heard in this area from the other side of the House needs to be refuted not only by facts but by the spelling out of the initiatives taken in recent times— 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Like what? 
MARYAN STREET 
: —as in workforce development which I have just outlined I say for those opposite who have not heard anything—that have been instrumental in delivering a wider range of mental health services to those people in need and their whanau in recent years. We now have a very committed workforce. I repeat a point I made earlier: at the opening of the acute unit at Waitakere Hospital recently when I asked about the hospital’s staffing levels I was told that the hospital was at its lowest level of turnover ever that it had the lowest number of vacancies in many many years and that the resources that had gone into producing that result—so that the hospital was able to care for people in our communities who had mental health issues and problems and who needed assistance and support in an acute unit for some time—had increased almost immeasurably certainly by comparison with previous years. I look forward to the participation of the Mental Health Commission in the continuing improvement of services for mental health service users and their families in this country. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.