Hutt teens’ long mental health wait

The Hutt Valley District Health Board says waiting times for children’s mental health care are improving, despite its poor performance in figures released by the Ministry of Health.

National figures show 26 per cent of children and teenagers waited longer than eight weeks for a follow-up face-to-face visit after seeking help from DHBs in 2014-15.

In the Hutt Valley, that figure was 45 per cent. In 2013-14, it was even higher, at 53 per cent.

An Upper Hutt mother whose son died while in the care of DHB mental health services said yesterday that the figures were ‘‘disgusting’’.

‘‘It’s hard enough battling an illness, let alone battling to get seen,’’ said Lyn Copland, whose son Samuel Fischer died by suspected suicide in Wellington’s mental health unit in April last year. ‘‘If three people come into A&E, you don’t say, we can only take two of you, come back in three months.’’

Fischer was 34 when he died – well above the age range in the national figures, which looked at cases in people aged up to 19. But Copland felt the statistics were further evidence of what she said was a broken system.

Nigel Fairley, mental health general manager for Wairarapa, Hutt Valley and Capital & Coast DHBs, said waiting times were improving in the Hutt Valley, and this would be evident in coming months.

‘‘The data is the rolling average of the DHB’s performance over the 12 months.

‘‘We have been and continue to work on improving the waiting times for young people in the Hutt Valley.

‘‘We have recently contracted the primary health organisation (PHO) to provide additional mental health support for young people, increasing the resource available.

‘‘This is one of a number of improvements we have made.’’

The number of young people waiting longer than eight weeks was 26 per cent in the Capital & Coast area.

At Wairarapa, 10 per cent of people waited longer than eight weeks, which was the lowest percentage in the country.

Rotorua, Taupo, the Hutt Valley, and Canterbury were among those with the longest waiting times.

The Green Party has called on Health Minister Jonathan Coleman to launch an urgent nationwide inquiry into mental health services.

‘‘Mental health services are struggling all around the country because of Government cuts to the overall health budget, and our vulnerable young people are paying the price,’’ co-leader James Shaw said.

He believed problems lay with under-funding in mental health services, and the decision to scrap the Mental Health Commission, as well as focusing resources on targets outside mental health.

Copland said those at the coalface, such as nurses and mental health staff, needed to rally their DHB chief executives to appeal to Coleman for better hours and more resources.