Video campaign backs youth crisis service

A student has taken her campaign to save an after-hours specialist youth mental health service to the small screen.

Zoe Palmer, 17, from Nelson, has surveyed youth on the proposed changes and held a poetry slam to raise awareness, and has now made a video backing the on-call Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) crisis team.

Palmer said it didn’t make sense that while mental health was one of the main themes in the last election, Nelson Marlborough Health had decided to disband the specialist youth after-hours service.

Last July, the health board proposed that the on-call CAMHS crisis service be replaced by a team that catered to all ages. The changes have yet to take effect.

Palmer said having been a CAMHS patient for five years ‘‘and having really struggled with my own mental health, why would you take this service away when it helps so many people?

She was motivated to create a video to represent the views of those who supported retaining the crisis team and spent a couple of months putting the video together. The video has been posted on her Facebook page and shared more than 120 times.,

Palmer has also started a petition against the changes that has already gathered more than 500 signatures.

‘‘I am really excited about the feedback and the amount of people that are getting behind this, which kind of shows that it is a big issue in our community and it is something that people are passionate about.’’

She hoped the DHB would listen to its community. Palmer planned to present the petition to Nelson Marlborough Health, Health Minister David Clark, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

‘‘I would like to see way more collaborative process around this, I would like to see the youth being asked, because we know what our needs are. I want them them to start talking to people on the frontline because they know what’s going on.’’

Palmer said she thought every region in New Zealand should have a specialist CAMHS crisis service.’’

Nelson Marlborough Health general manager of mental health, addictions and disability support services Jane Kinsey said a lot of the comments in Palmer’s video affirmed the work done by the CAMHS team .

‘‘The views expressed about our essential overnight crisis service validate the need for a strong and responsive after-hours crisis team, that is rostered on and ready to go from ED. This is what we are aiming for and making great progress with our team to achieve.’’