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Are mental health services improving lives?
Are mental health services improving lives?
3 August 2007
A new programme has revealed that a $4 million
investment into mental health services in Hawke’s Bay has
significantly improved the lives of consumers.
More people are living independently with stable housing, employment and access to support, a programme called Know the People Planning has found.
It also shows the number of consumers in paid employment has risen from 7 percent in 2004 to 25 percent in December 2006.
Case loads for community mental health practitioners have fallen from 40 to an average of less than 20. .
“The Know the People Planning programme was introduced to assess a commitment made in 2002 by Hawke’s Bay community mental health services to improve the access, delivery and responsiveness of services,” said Kim Henneker Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, Mental Health and Addiction Services clinical leader.
“Since then, more than $4 million has been invested in mental health care in Hawke’s Bay, and we are using the data collected using the Know the People Planning approach to identify whether this investment has made any real difference to service improvement and outcomes for consumers and their families.”
The Hawke’s Bay District Health Board is also using Know the People Planning to plan where services will be by 2015. These include individually-tailored, recovery-focused packages of support designed to meet a person’s needs, hopes and aspirations within the context of their family/whanau and community.
The Know the People Planning Programme is a finalist in the 2007 New Zealand Health Innovation Awards (HIA). It will be competing against 21 other finalists, four of which are also from the Hawke’s Bay region.
The HIA, a joint endeavour of the Ministry of Health and ACC, were started in 2003 and recognise individuals and organisations that have developed new and innovative approaches to delivering better health services.
Further information about the HIA is available online at http://www.healthinnovationawards.co.nz
This year’s HIA winners will be announced at the HIA expo and gala dinner held on 10 October at the Wellington Town Hall.
ENDS
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