Mental health funding a boost for new programme
A mental health care model piloted in the top of the south is settling in across Aotearoa, and a recent funding announcement will see the programme integrated into more general practices around the region.
The Health Intervention Practitioner (HIP) service was piloted in Nelson and Marlborough during 2019, and has since seen specialised clinicians placed in all Marlborough practices, while Nelson has a number of clinics integrating the practitioners into their teams.
Earlier this month, Health Minister Andrew Little announced $145 million to be rolled out over the next two years to enable the remaining five district health boards, including Nelson Marlborough, to fund the programme, as well as covering an expansion of services in areas that already have the roles in place.
The programme has added a new layer to mental health care, on top of the existing higher-level intervention.
Health Intervention Practitioner Dave Emerson said he was mindful
about using the phrase ‘‘mental health’’ in the HIP model. ‘‘We picture it as being
helpful – how can we be helpful?’’ The practitioners are based in health centres and general practices, providing an easy access service where patients can be seen on the same day or within a couple of days of their GP or practice nurse referring them.
Emerson said patients didn’t need to have a diagnosis to be referred, and often saw him for reasons including being worried about sleep, managing grief, and medication issues with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Their three main concerns were stress, anxiety and depression.
It was usually a ‘‘warm handover’’, he said.
‘‘The GP sees someone, they’ll get me into the office, they’ll introduce me, then they’ll take it from there.’’
He said the new model was very beneficial, with figures showing fewer patients being referred to secondary services.
‘‘It’s massive for our population health. Some people just need someone to talk to about what’s going on in their life. Some pragmatic help around how to navigate it will stop the spiral of unwellness people get having to wait on waiting lists. It’s a very, very good model.’’
Another layer to the service is making health coaches and community support workers available to patients, offering wraparound support.
Emerson said coaches and support workers saw patients at individual or group sessions.
‘‘That might be taking someone for a walk, might be helping them in the grocery store, picking out the right foods for their diabetes – just being helpful around someone’s health.’’
Nelson Marlborough Health general manager of mental health and addictions Jane Kinsey said it was an ‘‘exciting’’ wellness programme, which would absorb most of the allotted mental health funding.
‘‘It’s really aiming at prevention or early intervention, to try and nip concerns or worries that people have in the bud.’’
The funding would allow the model to expand across more general practices, she said.
Traditionally, the mental health service worked on criteria or diagnoses, and supporting people once they had been identified, Kinsey said. But the new model addressed worries when they first appeared, ‘‘and see if we can’t turn it around and give people some strategies’’ to cope.