Essential skills and expertise lost as 1778 nurses leave sector in two years
It had been another tough shift at the adolescent inpatient psychiatric unit in Porirua, where chronic understaffing had made caring for acutely mentally ill teenagers an exhausting struggle.
“We are in the red,” an employee wrote in the local health authority’s safety monitoring system, in an almost daily routine at the 12-bed facility.
On shift after shift between November and April, the regional rangatahi adolescent unit did not have enough experienced staff to properly care for the severely unwell teenagers admitted to the facility, according to safety logs obtained by the Herald.
In that six-months, employees recorded dozens of “safe staffing” incidents, which show how employees regularly worked overtime to cover roster gaps, rationed the care they provided, and worried about the safety of their colleagues and the highly vulnerable patients.
The conditions at the unit — which provoked a confrontation late last year between staff, unions, and management — are a stark illustration of a workforce crisis gripping mental health services across the country.
In recent months, a Herald investigation has detailed how a disjointed, underfunded public mental health system has been pushed to the brink without enough skilled staff to cope with rising distress.
Here are some of the key points from our reporting:
Staffing shortages are having a direct, significant impact on the availability and quality of care for people who desperately need it.
The Herald’s investigation has documented numerous instances of frontline services being disrupted, restricted or withdrawn because of staffing issues. The rangatahi unit is one example. Another is the Central Region Eating Disorder Service, which provides intensive treatment to people with anorexia and bulimia in the lower North Island. It closed for 12 days in December because it didn’t have enough staff, according to a briefing by health officials to Health Minister Andrew Little.
Across the country, mental health providers have raised thresholds for access to specialist treatment. People who are accepted into services face increasingly long waits for assessments and therapy; in too many cases the care provided is inadequate or inappropriate. Often those in crisis are directed to hospital emergency departments where they wait for hours in distress only to be sent home with little follow-up. It’s nearly impossible in some places to find vacant beds for patients.
As a result, many people with lifealtering mental conditions are not getting timely and effective care, with potentially enormous consequences for their safety, wellbeing, careers, finances, schooling and relationships. Thousands of Kiwi families are enduring unnecessary anguish because they can’t get help for their loved ones. The mental health crisis is also putting huge strain on communities, charities, GPs, schools, police and other public services.
Staff on the front lines are doing a heroic job, but they’re exhausted.
Caring for people with a serious