{"id":118190,"date":"2025-11-04T22:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/118190\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T22:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:18:07","slug":"mental-health-crisis-61-6-million-for-crisis-response-after-damning-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/118190\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental health crisis: $61.6 million for crisis response after damning reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people in distress waiting long periods of time for a crisis assessment. With 40 extra clinical staff, more New Zealanders will get faster access to crisis support.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 40 new staff would work on the frontline, assessing people experiencing a mental health crisis, and in treatment settings nationwide. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in crisis shouldn\u2019t be waiting too long for an inpatient bed. Peer-led acute alternative services provide more choice for people experiencing mental health issues, and get people seen quicker.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe funding will also increase peer-support workers at emergency departments. Photo \/ Jason Dorday<\/p>\n

Funding of $2 million per year would establish two new crisis cafes, bringing the total to eight nationally. A crisis cafe is a place people can meet with others to feel heard, supported and safe, Doocey said. <\/p>\n

\u201cEDs are often not the right environment when someone is going through a mental health crisis. Caf\u00e9s like this one meet people where they are, offering compassionate, peer-led care in the heart of the community.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone takes the brave step to reach out, whether it\u2019s you, your child, a friend, or a family member we\u2019re committed to ensuring the right support is always there to answer that call. This package goes a long way in making sure that\u2019s possible.\u201d <\/p>\n

The announcement comes after a series of reports that paint a picture of the strain the mental health system is under. A report in June from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission found the system was under \u201cimmense pressure\u201d as mental wellbeing worsened, including among young people. <\/p>\n

Another report by the same commission<\/a> released yesterday showed those in mental distress are waiting longer when they call for help. <\/p>\n

In 2020, people experiencing a mental health crisis waited two minutes to speak with someone. By the end of last year, people were waiting, on average, more than five minutes. <\/p>\n

\"MentalMental Health Minister Matt Doocey.
\nPhoto \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

For those seeking help from hospital emergency departments, the average wait time increased from four hours and 19 minutes in 2020 to five hours and 42 minutes last year. <\/p>\n

Doocey called it \u201canother damning report on the Labour Government\u2019s performance in mental health\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe report clearly shows that distress and crisis response is too fragmented, we\u2019ve got to join that up. It takes too long to get support, we\u2019ve got to have faster access. Ultimately, we need a better crisis response.\u201d <\/p>\n

A recently released report from Sir Peter Gluckman revealed despair about the state of the world is underpinning the crisis in youth mental health, including hopelessness about the future and helplessness in changing it. <\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe don\u2019t want people in distress waiting long periods of time for a crisis assessment. With 40 extra…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[83643,432,74,83645,16414,1887,537,77631,2082,19994,266,134,15221,83644,15472,1885,554,555,1132,111,139,4061,69,766,5034,25093,1516,6211,1533,102],"class_list":["post-118190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-83643","tag-action","tag-after","tag-assessments","tag-clinical","tag-countrys","tag-crisis","tag-damning","tag-for","tag-frontline","tag-government","tag-health","tag-improve","tag-increasing","tag-invest","tag-mental","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-million","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-number","tag-nz","tag-reports","tag-response","tag-speed","tag-staff","tag-system","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}