Youth left in limbo as Gumboot Fund empty

Counsellors say hundreds of young people have been left in the lurch after the Gumboot Fund abruptly ran out of money last month, putting their treatment programmes on hold.

Some are continuing to see their clients for free, in a bid to avoid “serious clinical ramifications” before the next major funding top up in six months.

The fund was launched by Mike King’s I Am Hope charity in April, after a Facebook campaign and Gumboot Friday event that collectively raised $1.3 million.

In an offer Christchurch-based clinical psychologist Catherine Gallagher said was “almost too good to be true”, anyone 19 years or younger could claim any number of counselling sessions, without joining a waitlist or meeting specific criteria. Their counsellor would be paid from the fund.

But she said all that support was “suddenly ripped away” in midSeptember when the charity hit the zero dollar mark, and sent out an email to its providers like her.

“There was no planning or warning,” she said.

Mental health campaigner Mike King told Checkpoint the rise in uptake in September “really rocked us”.

He said that “$920,000 went out in the last month and what we’ve heard on the grapevine was that doctors were finding a better response, a faster response in our service, and they were directing people to our fund.

“We were meant to be a fund that gave the system a break. Most people took 14 weeks to get in [for funded services] so what we were hoping to do was fund a couple of sessions before you get in.”

King said the scheme had to wait until the next Gumboot Day on April 3, and he was not anticipating early funding from the Government. I Am Hope’s chair Mike Dawes said there was a lot that could be done to improve the fund next year, including more parameters on spending. —