10 jobs to go at Mental Health Foundation
The Mental Health Foundation is eyeing job cuts as government funding fails to meet rising costs and demand.
The NGO is proposing to cut 10 roles out of 56, some of which are part-time or on a contract.
It estimates about half of its income is from government contracts, which go towards health promotion resources, campaigns, and programmes around mental health.
Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said: “Like many other NGOs reliant on fundraising, donations, and contracts from Government, MHF are grappling with costs rising faster than income.”
It had not had any government funding cut, he said, but its government-funded contracts had not kept pace with rising costs over a several years. It also faced a drop in fundraising revenue due to record inflation and a recession.
Robinson said the MHF needed to adapt to the challenges and change the way it’s organised “to ensure our important mahi continues”.
The move from the foundation, which is being consulted on, comes after a back-and-forth confusion around the Ministry of Health’s suicide prevention office.
Mental health advocates slammed the proposal, under the Health Ministry’s savings plan, which includes cutting a number of jobs.
Mental health advocate Mike King was in favour of getting rid of the ministry’s suicide prevention office, telling TVNZ it “is exactly the sort of bureaucracy we need to get rid of ”.
The foundation, which isn’t a public service agency, is not part of the Government’s directive to find costsavings, in relation to Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ first Budget.
A Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora spokesperson acknowledged “annual contract increases in recent years have struggled to keep pace with rising costs across a range of primary and community providers”.
It said the Government had to make decisions across “competing priorities”, including on health.
A Health NZ spokesperson promised the agency “works hard to ensure that the available funding is targeted at meeting cost pressures faced by a range of providers”, including the Mental Health Foundation.
Contract variations were unable to be confirmed until the May 30 Budget was unveiled. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey did not return a request for comment.