Inquiry hearings’ length ‘not enough’

THE ministerial inquiry into mental health and addiction services will spend just two months holding hearings, a time period suicide prevention campaigner Corinda Taylor describes as inadequate.

‘‘It’s not enough in a country of this size . . . Some people have been traumatised by the mental health system,’’ Mrs Taylor said.

‘‘Imagine they come to Dunedin and we have got a hundred unhappy people here — a oneonone conversation may take half an hour . . . How are they going to do that?’’

Little has been heard from the inquiry since it was set up by Health Minister David Clark in January, but last week some timeframes for how it will conduct its business were revealed.

A consultation document will be released in midApril, after which submissions will be open.

Hearings are scheduled for May and June, although they are expected to last into July.

‘‘Direct engagement with interested parties’’ will take place from March to September, with the inquiry scheduled to report back to the Government no later than October 31.

Mrs Taylor, who took a petition to Parliament last year calling for an inquiry into the mental health system, said suicide prevention trust Life Matters was already collating submissions by people affected by how mental health services were delivered.

‘‘We have had a huge response so far, hundreds and hundreds, and 94% of people are not satisfied with mental health services — that’s huge.’’

Inquiry head Prof Ron Paterson, of the University of Auckland, told the Otago Daily Times he agreed the time period was short, but all involved with the inquiry knew they had to work diligently and quickly as the Government wanted to consider their recommendations when planning the health budget for 2019.

‘‘Yes, it’s a tight timeframe, but this is intended as a policy advisory inquiry,’’ Prof Paterson said.

‘‘Yes, we are also asked to hear the voices of the community, but this is not a confidential listening forum and it is simply not practicable to go into a process which would take several years.’’

There had already been several reports on mental health and addiction services and the latest inquiry’s job was to build on that work and bring a fresh direction and new ideas.

‘‘A lot of people have been concerned about what has been called a crisis in the sector and a lot of those people don’t believe we can afford to wait for more than the nine months we have been given to report to Government,’’ Prof Paterson said.

The panel intended to visit each district health board district and hear from a range of consumers, administrators and service providers, he said.

‘‘It will be a lot to cover, but it is what we intend to do.’’