Mental health care at crisis point, say critics

Mental health care for the intellectually disabled is so underfunded it has reached “crisis point”, with one patient living in a secure unit for more than a decade, according to a damning letter to the Ministry of Health.

The Government is denying there is a crisis, with Associate Minister of Health Nicky Wagner defending the national service, however the letter says the Ministry of Health knew about the long-term patient in Canterbury and did nothing about it.

The letter, obtained by the Herald, is signed by Mason Clinic director Dr Jeremy Skipworth and Wellington clinical psychologist Nigel Fairley, on behalf of the five district health boards that provide regional forensic mental health services.

It said patients were being assessed in prisons instead of hospitals, there were repeated violent assaults, and no ability to separate youth and female patients in some forensic units around the country.

Forensic mental health services provide compulsory care to intellectually disabled patients charged with a criminal offence.

The letter, dated May 5 and copied to the Human Rights Commission, Children’s Commission, Director of Mental Health, Health and Disability Commissioner and the Office of the Ombudsman, states there is widespread concern that the level of resourcing is not enough to fulfil the provisions of the law.

“The failure to ensure adequate capacity within the sector is such that there is now a serious and in some areas imminent risk of harm to those individuals unable to access the appropriate care in existing services and the community.”

At Canterbury DHB, chief of psychiatry Dr Peri Renison said the lack of a purpose-built facility had resulted in repeated assaults on staff and patients, some witnessed by young people. She said the placement of two intellectually disabled patients in the forensic mental health service was a significant breach of rights.

“One of these men has lived in the forensic unit for well over 10 years despite many discussions with MOH about the need for a suitable placement for him.”

Renison said the level of concern was so high that the board was preparing to close other mental health inpatient services in case staff need to be diverted to the 10-bed Assessment Treatment and Rehabilitation Unit when staff there refused to work for safety reasons. “This is an unacceptable situation . . . and it appears we are in the midst of a national system failure.”

Under questioning from Labour’s health spokesman David Clark in Parliament yesterday, Wagner denied there was a national system failure. “I am advised by the Ministry of Health that it has been able to manage growing pressure through regional responses and . . that to date the number of beds has been sufficient to meet demand.”

She said a new national service was being developed and a long-term solution was to be finalised soon.

Dr Peri Renison, Canterbury DHB