Mental health spending slows
The Government is set to spend far less than it promised on mental health initiatives in its 2019 Budget.
A flagship new frontline mental health service intended to keep mild and moderate patients away from hospitals had only seen $67.4 million by March – less than half the $145.3m it was due to cost by July.
The Government and Ministry of Health said Covid-19 had slowed progress and that some contracts had been signed without money yet being spent.
Yet providers in the sector claim they are having serious issues getting through the procurement process.
The news comes as the Government faces serious pressure over mental health, after Stuff revealed that a routine mental health report was held up for months as officials argued over the removal of several statistics.
The report revealed that the use of seclusion had spiked under the Labour Government, and it has subsequently emerged that wait times for teen mental health services are also on the rise – leading to Mental Health Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson saying the crisis has worsened since Labour swept to power in 2017 promising to fix it.
Budget 2019 allocated $1.1 billion in operational spending on mental health initiatives over five years, with just under $250m to be spent by this July. As of March just $216m had been spent – and some schemes were far further behind.
One scheme aimed at promoting wellbeing for students in primary and intermediate schools had seen no money spent by March, despite being due to spend $1.4m by July.
Just under $11.6m was allocated for forensic mental health services, but only $7.48m had been spent by March.
New Zealand Union of Student Associations president Andrew Lessells said associations had been experiencing issues getting promised money out of the Government.
Students were promised $25m for mental health support last year but Lessells couldn’t be certain that any of it had been spent yet.
‘‘We’ve seen systemic issues with money being allocated and sitting in the ministry’s coffers and not getting out on the ground.’’
National’s mental health spokesman, Matt Doocey, who uncovered the funding situation using a written parliamentary question, said the Government was good at making announcements but bad at actually delivering on them.
‘‘We see money sitting in a bank account and not going out to services.’’
Matt Doocey
National’s spokesman on mental health
‘‘The Labour Party came into power on the back of a lot of people’s pain in 2017. They told people they had a plan for mental health – we don’t see it.
‘‘We see money sitting in a bank account and not going out to services.’’
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told Stuff Covid-19 had held up a lot of planned spending.
‘‘The first year of it was always a year of it where things would be ramped up. The second year was very much affected by Covid-19 both within a DHB level but also a Ministry of Health level,’’ Robertson said.
‘‘The resources have been allocated by the Government, we want to see them get out to people.’’
Health Minister Andrew Little’s office directed detailed inquiries to the Ministry of Health, which also pointed to Covid-19.
The ministry’s deputy directorgeneral for mental health, Toni Gutschlag, made clear that any money left unspent by the end of the fiscal year would go into the next year’s mental health spending.
Gutschlag said several recentlysigned contracts would mean more funding was sent out before July, but the ministry did expect to underspend on a few initiatives.