Millions for mental health unspent

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 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 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 Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson to say 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.

The gap would have been larger but for an automatic increase in mental health spending of $88.8m that comes whenever overall health spending increases, as it did in Budget 2020.

One scheme aimed at promoting wellbeing for pupils in primary and intermediate schools had seen no money spent by March, despite it 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 the underspending didn’t surprise him as students’ associations had been facing issues getting promised government money.

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.’’

Just $2m was allocated to be spent in the first year, and the Ministry of Health cancelled a tender process over this, instead giving all the money to the new national polytech, Te Pu¯ kenga.

Lessells said that could make sense given the money could go out quickly, but to the best of his knowledge, it wasn’t yet spent. (Te Pu¯ kenga has been asked for comment.)

As for the money allocated to be spent for the year starting in July 2021 – in less than three months – he had not been told about any kind of tender or application process for that money yet, meaning it would probably not be available for a long while.

The National Party’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 delivering on them.

‘‘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 said the pandemic 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,’’ he said.

Deputy director-general for mental health Toni Gutschlag said any money left unspent by the end of the fiscal year would go into the next year’s mental health spending – meaning things not due for several years could potentially happen faster.

Gutschlag said several recently signed contracts would mean more funding was sent out before July, but the ministry did expect to underspend on a few initiatives.

She said it took on average of 12 weeks between a contract being signed and services actually being delivered.

Maria Baker, the chief executive of Ma¯ ori health organisation Te Rau Ora, urged the Government to prioritise Ma¯ ori-led funding. Ma¯ ori had far worse outcomes and in many cases couldn’t afford to go to GPs where the new services were being installed, she said.