The Blueprint for Mental Health Services which has ensured ring-fenced funding for mental health for the past decade, is under review and nurses are keen participants.
Lynne Lane, the Mental Health Commission chair, recently announced the review to update the 1998 blueprint that has guided mental health resourcing and service development.
She said new guidelines were needed to support a “sustainable national resourcing pathway” for mental health and addiction services in the “constrained fiscal environment”, including advice on any ring-fence modifications.
A draft concept document is to be released this month on how to evolve services to improve access and outcomes, allow flexible local responses and measure service performance.
Daryle Deering, College of Mental Health Nurses president, said it was timely to look at how to make the best use of mental healthcare resources and the development of integrated mental health and addiction services. Deering said the ring fence was created to protect resources for people with mental health problems, particularly those with enduring need. She said the new blueprint needed to adequately resource primary health services such as identification and early intervention, but not at the expense of resources for people with complex and long-term mental health and addiction problems.
Alex Craig, spokesperson for the National Directors of Mental Health Nursing, said the transparent review process would provide nursing groups with plenty of opportunities to contribute. Nurses could be disappointed that there were no specific nurse voices on the review’s advisory group. “But I feel confident that the people that are there will be able to represent the needs across the services.”
Craig said it was clear that the focus of the blueprint review was foremost on meeting the needs of service users and their families, and also to align mental health services with the work plans of the National Health Board and Health Workforce New Zealand. “There’s definitely evidence to show that the need for mental health services is going to grow over the next 10 years, but certainly the resources that go into health across the board are not going to grow at the same pace… there simply aren’t the resources to do that.”
Deering said Lane had consulted the college and the commission chair was aware of the need for mental health nurse input into the new blueprint. The college had a number of issues it saw as important, including the need for the new blueprint to recognise epidemiological research showing unmet need, the complexities of caring for people with mental health and physical health problems, and the need for ongoing long-term interventions, both psychosocial and medication.
Other areas the college wanted considered were responsive and accessible services for children and young people and for services not to be siloed so the college could be creative and meet needs in areas like the country’s prisons.
Craig said the level of NGO (non-governmental organisation) involvement in the review was also important, because it was easy for the large secondary service to dominate and overshadow the push for increased services and resources in community settings. “So the blueprint needs to reflect those kind of changes really.
The directors of mental health nursing are to meet in November, when MHC chair Lynne Lane will attend the meeting to discuss the review process.
