Turner: Anti-depressant/youth suicide
link needs exploring
An upcoming meeting at which New
Zealand authorities will look at requiring warning labels on
anti-depressants for young people raises the broader issue
of this country's imbalanced reliance on drugs to address
mental health issues, United Future's Judy Turner said
today.
"We need to ask some hard questions about how much
of the ring-fenced health budget is spent on medical
responses, to the exclusion of counselling and cognitive and
psycho-therapies," Mrs Turner, United Future health
spokeswoman, said.
"Every answer is not found in a pill
bottle - and just as pointedly, international experience has
strongly linked anti-depressants and youth suicides.
"This
is a serious issue that needs to be further explored," Mrs
Turner said.
"We might well find that mental health
funding would be more effective if it followed the client,
rather than the Government determining what they will and
will not fund," she said.
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