“One of the most important periods in a child’s life is the first 2000 days. By providing support to families early, we can help build a stronger future for our children,” he said.
“That’s why we are making a significant investment in maternal mental health. This funding will support specialist maternal mental health and addiction services, while also growing the frontline workforce.”
Doocey said the funding would pay for new peer support workers, enabling mothers to connect with people who have lived experience and understand what they are going through and expanding the frontline workforce.
“Government doesn’t always know best. Communities often know what works for them and simply need the opportunity to put those solutions into action. That’s why we are establishing a $1 million per annum fund that NGOs [non-governmental organisations] can access to help increase support in their communities,” he said.
Doocey said the new “psychology assistant pathway” was “a great example of the Government growing the frontline workforce”.
“Each year, hundreds of psychology graduates miss out on limited clinical training places and are lost to the workforce.
“Not only are we doubling the number of clinical psychologists trained but we have also created a new registration pathway so these graduates can remain focused on mental health and help support New Zealanders who need it.
“This is the very first time psychology assistant roles have been employed in Health New Zealand. This funding will employ up to 50 new psychology assistants each year, a total of 150 over four years, alongside supervision and training support.”
Doocey said he had heard stories of people being left waiting for care because of bed shortages, which led to the funding of 20 additional inpatient beds.
“Priority will be given to regions that are under the most pressure and have the highest ongoing occupancy rates,” he said.
Kristy and Toby Maguire at the mental health unit in Tauranga Hospital.
Perinatal mental health advocate Kristy Maguire, who spoke to the Herald last year for an investigation on the state of perinatal mental health services in New Zealand, said the funding was a “step in the right direction”.
“It’s genuinely super encouraging to see maternal mental health finally recognised as an underserved part of our public health system and get some dedicated funding,” Maguire said.
“The system has been failing mums and babies for way too long, it’s so critical that there are early intervention and specialist services in place to stop women falling through the tracks which happens so often,” she said.
Maguire also applauded the decision to fund NGOs saying that in her experience, “it’s the community that fills that gaps in the public health system”.
She repeated her concern that there were not enough mum-and-baby units in New Zealand. A mum-and-baby unit is where a mother can receive mental healthcare without being separated from her baby. Though common in some countries, access to them in New Zealand varies by region.
“I am looking forward to finding out more about how they plan to operationalise this to meet the actual need,” Maguire said.
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