Anger at plight of at-risk kids

“I’m not expecting facilities to be completed and fully staffed, but we seem to be a long way behind actually getting a shovel in the ground.”

Andrew Little

Minister of Health

The number of children having to wait for over two months to see a counsellor has almost doubled in the past three years, despite huge investment from the Government.

Priority was being given to teenagers because they were more at risk of self-harm and suicide, Health Minister Andrew Little said yesterday.

“While supporting needs across all age groups is important, specialist child and adolescent mental health services place priority on seeing those young people with the greatest risk first,” he said.

This comes despite the Government’s $1.9 billion promise to fix mental health. Little expressed “extraordinary frustration” with the pace of change, signalling an independent review of spending in the area.

New figures from the Ministry of Health show that in the year to March 2020, more than 1200 children under the age of 12 waited for more than eight weeks for “non-urgent” mental health help.

That was about double the rate from three years ago, when 12 per cent, or 775 children, waited longer than eight weeks.

The ministry has set a target for district health boards to see 95 per cent of patients within eight weeks, but DHBs up and down the country are routinely failing to meet this target.

Pre-teens were by far the most likely to wait longer than two months: About 10 per cent of teenagers and 7 per cent of working-age adults waited for more than eight weeks.

“Wait times are shorter for those aged 12 to 19 because, developmentally, the ages 12 to 19 is the time when people are at the highest risk of developing mental health and addiction issues,” Little said in an emailed

statement, adding that teenagers were at greater risk of harming themselves.

The minister expressed frustration at the pace of change sector, after it was revealed just five additional beds had been created for acute care from $235m of capital investment.

‘‘This is a budget we did two years ago, with commitments made two years ago,’’ Little said. ‘‘I’m still trying to understand it – I’m not expecting facilities to be completed and fully staffed, but we seem to be a long way behind actually getting a shovel in the ground.’’

Spending has also been slow in other parts of the mental health area: Only half of the planning spending for a new service for mild-to-moderate needs has left the Government’s coffers, and a new fund for student mental healthcare, launched in 2020, hadn’t spent a cent by April.

Little said an independent review of the ministry spending processes was likely.

National’s mental health spokesman, Matt Doocey, said the Government had come to power promising to fix mental health but it had let the country down.

‘‘It’s a kick in the guts for the many New Zealanders who believed Labour when they came to power and said they would make a difference in mental health,’’ Doocey said.

Money and time were spent on a plan for mental health investment, but it didn’t appear any plan was being followed, he said.

It was concerning that teenagers were being prioritised over under-12s, as the early years of a child’s life were crucial. ‘‘There’s a lot of young people who are not getting access to the services they need.’’