Health Minister Andrew Little has defended the Government's delivery on mental health, saying "nothing has gone wrong" despite a damming review into mental health services.
On Tuesday, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission released its new report for 2022, finding there has been no change in access to specialist mental health services in five years, despite the Government's $1.9 billion cash injection in 2019.
Little told Newshub Nation on Saturday that while the specialist end of mental health services hasn't changed a great deal, they have made good progress.
"So, the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission's report acknowledges that a, there was this investment and b, that we've made good progress in relation to the primary mental health care that we invested in that programme," he said.
"They've acknowledged that when it comes to the specialist end of mental health services, so those services provided out of hospitals, there are still waiting times. They haven't changed a great deal. I acknowledge that, and we have an ongoing programme of work to do to lift and get improvement in those areas."
Little said that a significant increase in demand for specialist care and the previous Government's neglect of mental health services are behind the long waiting times for specialist care.
"The system was run down and the previous Government neglected it."
He said the Government commissioned the review and found the biggest priority was for mental health services for people with mild to moderate issues and has put 850 people in roles providing those services in two years, 200 of which were for kaupapa Māori, Pacific and youth-specific health services.
While some progress has been made on early intervention at GP clinics, there are not enough psychiatrists and clinical psychologists to help reduce the demand for care at the acute end.
Little told Newhub Nation that the wait time for acute services for teenagers is roughly one-third seen by an acute specialist within a couple of days, two-thirds within three weeks and 90 percent within eight weeks.
"Look, if you're somebody who is in major distress and you're waiting a matter of days or weeks, look, I know that that is a long time and it's hard for the families," Little said. "We know that we have more to do at that acute end, and we're getting on to doing it."
He said the Government set a long-term plan at the end of last year and has started to train staff and has recruitment initiatives underway.
Understaffing is up to 40 percent and the country is losing experienced doctors, nurses and psychologists. Newshub Nation was told by doctors that when they see a patient with serious mental health illnesses they only have time to do a "patch-up" job.
"Look, what happens at the hospital end and the acute end of the services is one thing, and often people are medicated and that's pretty much what they get. But because there's nowhere to discharge people safely into the community, then those people don't get the follow-up care that they actually need," Little said.
He said there are people in mental health wards that do not need to be there but are because there isn't support in the communities, which is another gap that needs to be filled.
The report found that while the funding was there, the leadership was not good enough to execute change.
When asked whether he is satisfied with the current leadership, Little said that many of the DHB leaders are doing a "great job".
The health sector is going through a major reform, replacing the 20 DHBs with one national authority called Health NZ.
Little said this will provide consistency across the board but will need to work closely with the Māori Health Authority to ensure there is equitable access to health services.
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