Thursday, August 04, 2005
Mental Health Portrayals Praised (New Zealand) Story at
Black Enterprise - "The Mental Health Commission has congratulated the country's print media for the way it reports mental health issues. The commission said compared with a 1998 study, reporting of mental health issues last year showed a significant improvement in how papers portrayed people with experience of mental illness. Commissioner Mary O'Hagan was heartened by that and made specific mention of the Waikato Times for the number of stories it ran with a mental health theme."
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Strong Support for New Mental Health Strategy (New Zealand) Story at
Scoop - "Richmond Fellowship, the national provider of support services, says the Government’s new 10-year plan for mental health is an excellent blueprint that will encourage services to be more accessible and innovative. Te Tâhuhu: Improving Mental Health is New Zealand’s second mental health and addiction plan, outlining Government policy and priorities for mental health to 2015 and providing direction for investment in services. It describes ten leading challenges, including promotion of mental health and prevention of illness; building mental health services, including more services for children and young people; broadening the choice of services; improving responsiveness; workforce development; strengthening the primary health sector, and improving availability to addiction services."
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Government asks GPs to do more for mental health (New Zealand) New Zealand Herald story - "The Government wants primary health clinics to take a greater role in diagnosing and treating people with mental illnesses. The call comes in the Government's second mental health and addiction plan, made public yesterday by Health Minister Annette King. One in three general practice patients has had a diagnosable mental illness in the preceding year, a study found. In the same survey, GPs said they had identified mental problems, from severe to mild, in half of the patients. The new 10-year plan comes after a decade of advances in mental health care - following the closure of the big psychiatric hospitals - but also amidst continuing serious problems..."
Friday, June 17, 2005
Mental health and addiction services (New Zealand) Story at
Scoop - "A recent fono (meeting) held at Pataka in Porirua was attended by over sixty Pacific mental health and addiction service providers, funders and planners in the lower North Island provided an opportunity to explore issues and challenges facing the sector. 'Pacific populations are fast growing and youthful,' confirmed Dr Debbie Ryan, Chief Advisor Pacific Health at the Ministry of Health. 'The changing demographic of these populations presents both a challenge and an opportunity to address the way we deliver basic services and address the cultural needs of our young people within an evolving environment,' Dr Ryan said. Pacific and Maori have a much younger age structure and higher fertility rates indicating a forecast for 2051 in which, 57% of Kiwi children will be of Maori or Pacific descent. At the same time the European share of the working population will fall from 78% to 66%."
Monday, June 06, 2005
Mental health crisis? Form a committee (New Zealand) Story at
Stuff - "Capital and Coast District Health Board has debated a draft five-year mental health consultation plan that recommended more staff, more services, a major shift in focus from crisis services to early intervention, and "a district mental health development group" to oversee the changes. Even board members winced at the thought of yet another committee in a sector already bogged down by bureaucracy. 'To come to the conclusion that the answer is another committee is disappointing,' board member Judith Aitken said. The recommendation for a new overseeing group was eventually watered down to an 'inclusive mechanism'. The five-year plan, dubbed 'The Journey Forward', provided solid suggestions of how best to improve mental health services, but avoided the tough questions - when, how much and where does the money come from? However, a board spokeswoman said there was new money available to fund the changes. "
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Mental health problems in Maori attending GPs (New Zealand) University of Otago press release - "Anxiety disorders, depression and substance use disorders are all more common among Maori than non- Maori patients who are attending their GP, a study by University of Otago researchers has revealed. The study, by the Mental Health and General Practice Investigation (MaGPIe) research group at the University of Otago’s Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, found that this trend was particularly marked for Maori women."
Monday, May 16, 2005
