Mental health peer support service coming to EDs
Matt Doocey has made his first major announcement as Mental Health Minister and health leaders are backing him.
A new mental health and addiction peer support service will be available from July in hospital emergency departments (EDs), Doocey announced yesterday.
The initiative will see peer support specialists – or trained professionals who have experienced their own mental health and addiction challenges – aim to better support the at least 13,000 people in crisis presenting to EDs each year.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson could have benefited from the initiative 20 years ago during his time of crisis, he said.
Robinson lives with bipolar disorder himself and said when he was unwell, about two decades ago, he took himself to the ED.
“I had to sit there in a very agitated state in the middle of the night and it took some hours before someone was able to see me.
“It would have been so much better if there had been someone there who would have been able to come and sit with me and talk to me about what was happening and who could say look, I've been through some similar experiences myself.”
Peer support specialists are people who have lived experience of mental illness or addiction and have recovered. In this role, they will provide mental health support, connect people to community services and provide comfort to patients arriving on their own, with family or the Police, Doocey said.
“EDs have become a bottleneck for a variety of issues including mental health. This work will go some way to untangling that, including for Police who in some cases also have to wait hours until a patient can be seen.
“Peer support specialists play a vital role within the mental health workforce, and it is essential we put in place specific initiatives to grow and support them,” Doocey said.
In its first year, this initiative will be in four large hospitals with a further four in the second year. There will be a review to determine which EDs are best placed to support a trial and no participating hospitals have been announced so far.
Clinical psychologist and executive advisor of the NZ College of Clinical Psychologists Paul Skirrow said more support in EDs was a “terrific” idea, as long as the peer support specialists were supported themselves.
“We wouldn’t want these services to be offered instead of qualified practitioners and we would want these workers to be very, very well supported.
“There’s certain things you wouldn’t want peer workers to be involved in like restraining people or being involved in the Mental Health Act process.”
There were a lot of advantages to having peer support specialists with lived experience but it was a “tough role” working with people in crisis all the time.
“There would be some situations that would be beyond their capability to respond to. It’s just making sure that they’re well resourced and well supported.”
“It’s a great idea, it just has to not be instead of qualified practitioners.”
The peer support specialists will be the first point of contact in ED for people in mental distress, Robinson said.
“It will mean someone is there who has been through similar experience so it’s a way of providing some immediate reassurance. Helping them feel more calm, less threatened and less panicked then also to identify what that person might need.”
Too many people were ending up being hospitalised or sectioned under the Mental Health Act when that could be avoided, he said.
The initiative is being funded using uncommitted Health NZ/Te Whatu Ora funds and is estimated to cost between $300,000 and $500,000 per hospital.
“A $1 million workforce fund over two years has also been set up to provide Level 4 NZ Certificate in Health and Wellbeing (Peer Support) training and specific training for working in emergency departments. If this proves to be a success, we see this initiative rolling out to all hospitals.
The announcement has a “big tick” from the Mental Health Foundation.
“[Doocey is] pushing something that has often been held back within mental health so he’s clearly understanding the importance of peer support and he’s being creative.”