Fears Young People Slipping Through Gaps In Mental Health Data

Kate Green
Health Correspondent

There
are concerns young people seeking mental health support are
slipping through gaps in the data if their referrals are
declined when they reach out for help.

MP Ingrid
Leary, Labour’s spokesperson for mental health, welcomed the
news last month from Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey, who
announced the government would begin publicly reporting youth
mental health wait times.

But Leary said failing
to count the number of declined referrals meant only half
the picture was being told.

This is a problem felt all
around the health sector – a report by the Association of
Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) found
one in five specialist referrals (separate to mental
health) were declined last year across several districts,
but said the extent of the problem nationally was not known
because Health NZ did not collate the
information.

Leary said to really understand if young
people were getting the help they needed, both wait times
and the declined referrals needed to be counted.

“And
we need to understand where the young people live, which
areas of the postcode lottery so that we can better target
the interventions,” she said.

The Mental Health and
Wellbeing Commission agreed counting declined referrals was
important.

“The data referenced by Minister Doocey
suggests some young people are struggling to find an
appointment, do not know where to get help, or feel too
embarrassed to seek it.

“Those are important issues,
but we also know there are system-level barriers after young
people do reach out, including increased declined referrals,
unclear pathways, or services not having capacity to provide
the right support at the right time.

“Young people
have told us they often do ask for help and the NZ Health
Survey shows that younger adults (15-34) more likely to seek
help for mental health. The challenge is not only whether
they know where to go, but whether the system is able to
respond effectively when they reach out.”

Doocey said
it was his expectation – and he had been assured it was best
practice – that if a person was assessed as not requiring
specialist services they were not just turned away, but
referred elsewhere for support.

“What normally happens
is they are either directly referred to another service, or
back to their GP with suitable recommendations for support,”
he said.

No young person should be left in limbo, he
said, “and anything falling short of that would not meet my
expectations”.

He said it was “rich” for Leary to
comment, as this was the first government to publicly report
wait times against targets.

Reporting on wait times
would begin from next quarter, and on Thursday, the
government would be releasing its Mental Health Strategy at
Parliament.

Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
chief executive Karen Orsborn said they too were hearing
young people were being declined or meeting other challenges
accessing help.

“It’s not a consistent picture across
the country,” she said. “We do have different levels and
types of services in some parts of the country compared to
others.”

© Scoop Media