Dyson Ruth: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Dyson Ruth: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3775] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 If members of the Committee look on the website of the Ministry of Health they will see a photo of the word “HOPE” written in large letters in the sand on a New Zealand beach. It is a still from the world-acclaimed Like Minds Like Mine advertising campaign—the campaign that most recently featured John Kirwan standing tall and telling New Zealanders his story of hope and of recovery. Well despite Tony Ryall’s axing of the mental health target from the focus of district health boards and the Ministry of Health that photo of hope still remains on the ministry’s website illustrating the now-axed target. In my view—and I certainly hope that my view is correct—it is a show of some healthy subversion remaining in the Ministry of Health despite that ministry’s staff now being cut instead of being capped. I will be very interested to see how long after my contribution in the Chamber—and it is now 12 minutes past 3—it will take the Minister of Health to instruct his officials to get that sign of hope off its website. I do not think that it will take very long. 
The Mental Health Commission started about the same time as the Like Minds Like Mine campaign. It is designed to give the Minister independent advice; it acts as an advocate for the interests of service users and their families—that is for one in five New Zealanders. By the late 1990s New Zealanders had reached a level of shame and disquiet about how we treated our own and we began this journey of hope to reduce the stigma and to see mental health issues through the lens of support and recovery. And that has been working. Until now there has been a cross-party agreement in this Parliament to ensure that those with mental illness are supported through recovery. 
Since 2007 the mental health sector has been focusing on a target of having at least 90 percent of long-term clients with up-to-date relapse prevention plans. In the last year over 1500 more clients have had those plans—a 16 percent increase since the first quarter of the year before when this target started to be measured. That is a total of 7476 people—76 percent of all clients—who have up-to-date relapse prevention plans. But now that work is no longer considered a priority by the Minister of Health. The National Government has turned its back on some of the most vulnerable New Zealanders by saying that mental health is no longer a priority. The Government does not think mental health is important enough to rate as a target for the health system in New Zealand so more than 7400 people can now feel shunned by the National Government. Well I say that that is a disgrace. It will be an everlasting shame to the current Government that it treats in that way some of the most vulnerable people in New Zealand. 
Peter McGeorge the Chairman of the Mental Health Commission recently warned about the increase of mental health problems as a result of the recession. He said that rising unemployment is a critical factor and that every 1 percent increase in unemployment leads to a 2 to 3 percent jump in the number of people at risk of developing mental health issues. There seems no better time to support the most vulnerable in our community and to support those who are now even more at risk of developing mental health problems. Now is exactly the wrong time for the Government to turn its back on those people and to say that it is more important that people can get into accident and emergency departments in a speedy time than it is that someone with a mental health illness can get the support he or she deserves.