Stop talking about the mental health system and start acting, mental health experts say

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-05-26 00:01

New Zealand

Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash

New Zealand's mental health system, and the people working in it, are on the brink of collapse. Problems include lack of inpatient beds, ad hoc rationing of services, and clinician burnout. Although the funded mental healthcare workforce grew by over 10% between 2018 and 2022, more than 10% of positions are vacant. Also, the mental health workforce is aging rapidly, with around half aged over 50 and one fifth over 60, suggesting workforce shortages will get worse as those workers retire. In an editorial in the New Zealand Medical Journal, three mental health researchers recommend that as the mental health workforce is two-thirds female, recruitment and retention efforts should be focussed on women. They also suggest an apprenticeship model for mental health care assistants be developed, to recruit people without a tertiary health qualification, but with other relevant experience, such as lived experience of mental illness or deep understanding of tikanga Māori and Pasifika culture.

Media release

From: Pasifika Medical Association Group

The New Zealand mental health workforce is under extreme pressure. The 2018 national inquiry into mental health and addiction (He Ara Oranga) has done little to fix this issue. Despite an increase in available funding, 10% of positions are vacant and almost half the workforce is aged over 50. We argue that it is no longer viable to fill the vacancies with people who already have a tertiary degree in the health sciences. We should instead be recruiting people with desirable attributes (including lived experience of mental illness and knowledge of Māori and Pasifika culture) to the vacant positions and providing them with paid on-the-job training.

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Medical Journal

Organisation/s: University of Otago

Funder: n/a

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