Long mental health help wait

Children and teenagers with mental health issues face an average 35-day wait for an initial appointment with public services in Canterbury as the health board struggles to meet national targets.

One young person waited 361 days for a follow-up appointment – a time frame Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) chief executive David Meates said was unacceptable.

Patients who had a follow-up appointment in October waited an average of four months. Meates said it was a priority for the child, adolescent and family (CAF) service to reduce waiting times.

‘‘While we do our best to meet the Ministry of Health-endorsed wait time targets, extraordinary circumstances in Canterbury, including the increase in referrals, has made this harder to achieve,’’ he said.

For Canterbury woman Clare*, waiting was out of the question. Last year, her then 11-year-old son started having panic attacks at school.

‘‘It would literally stop him in his tracks and he’d be struggling to see, breathe and hear,’’ she said.

Clare has experience with the public system. Her younger daughter was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after the earthquakes, but the situation with her son felt more urgent.

‘‘He was talking about suicide, so we weren’t willing to wait at all, and by going private we got to see a really amazing psychologist in two weeks,’’ she said.

Each session cost $150, but Clare felt she and her son got the help they needed. As a parent of ‘‘quake kids’’, she said there needed to be more awareness and solutions-focused discussion about youth mental health issues.

National targets require 80 per cent of young people to be seen within 21 days, and 96 per cent within 56 days. CDHB figures for September fell short, with 68.4 and 81 per cent respectively. There were 264 new cases during the month.

Youth primary care specialist

Dr Sue Bagshaw said the lengthy public wait times meant other organisations were dealing with more young people with more serious mental health issues.

‘‘People get more severe as they wait. So not only is it more humane to have shorter wait times, it’s also more cost-effective because people are less severe,’’ she said.

Bagshaw said there needed to be greater collaboration between people and organisations involved in mental health to make sure those needing help received the necessary support.

CDHB specialist mental health services acting general manager Barbara Wilson said CAF wait times were concerning.

There were 3954 referrals in 2016, then 4137 in 2017, and 2870 in the first eight months this year, figures released under the Official Information Act (OIA) show. Earthquake trauma has been identified as driving demand.

Young people accessing CAF services usually had a ‘‘choice’’ appointment first, where clinicians clarified issues and discussed available services. If needed, they moved on to a ‘‘partnership’’ appointment, which included a full psychiatric assessment.

The longest wait for a ‘‘choice’’ appointment was 148 days, and 361 days for a ‘‘partnership’’ appointment, OIA figures show. For patients with a ‘‘partnership’’ meeting in October, the average wait time from their ‘‘choice’’ appointment was 122 days.

Wilson said this did not mean no support was provided during the wait. A clinician from the service would remain in touch.

The DHB was reviewing and streamlining its systems to manage the increase in numbers, she said. More staff were working in the access team, which covered referrals and emergency work.

* Not her real name