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Wednesday 11 December 2019

Report highlights inequity of mental health service quality and outcomes for Māori

Wednesday 11 December 2019

Mental Health Commissioner Kevin Allan today released an update to his 2018 monitoring and advocacy report on New Zealand’s mental health and addiction services, which highlights ongoing concerns about inequity of mental health service quality and outcomes for Māori.

Kevin Allan said 41% of adults who experienced seclusion within inpatient services in 2017 were Māori. Māori also had higher rates of homelessness and supported accommodation than others accessing services in 2017/18.

"This update report highlights a need for services to continue to focus on making improvements in a number of areas, including in relation to equity, consumer partnership, and the use of compulsory treatment and seclusion, especially for Māori," Kevin Allan said.

The update report tracks progress made on key measures of quality of mental health and addiction services in New Zealand, looking at data from the five years to June 2018.

"Tracking progress against indicators of service quality allows us to see trends, highlight areas of concern or identify where there has been improvement," Kevin Allan said.

"On a positive note, the update report shows that generally people improve when they access services, and that most people and their whānau would recommend their service to others."

The Mental Health Commissioner will release a fuller assessment of services in 2020, which will include qualitative analysis and recommendations, alongside a further update of the measures included in this year’s report.

A copy of the Mental Health Commissioner’s Monitoring Indicator Update 2019 is available on the HDC website.

https://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1912/MHAS_Monitoring_indicator_update.pdf

Key statistics from New Zealand’s mental health and addiction services: Monitoring indicator update 2017 & 2017/18:

Inequity of service quality and outcomes for Māori and other population groups

- Prevalence of mental illness and addiction is nearly 1 in 3 for Māori and 1 in 4 for Pacific peoples compared to 1 in 5 for the total population.

- 41% of adults who experienced seclusion within inpatient services in 2017 were Māori, an increase from 36% in 2013.

- Māori and Pacific peoples had higher rates of homelessness and supported accommodation use, and lower rates of education, training, or employment in 2017/18 than the general population accessing services.

- Young people had the longest wait times for mental health services of any population group, and were less likely to be followed up within 7 days of being discharged from an inpatient unit than adults in 2017/18.

Partnership between consumers and services and whānau and services

- Compulsory treatment orders have increased by 16% over the last 5 years.

- No DHBs met the new target of 95% of people having a transition plan in 2017.

- Only 75% of consumers and whānau reported that their plan was reviewed regularly.

- There are low levels of reporting by services of service contacts to support consumers in their role as caregivers, and to support whānau of consumers.

Positive trends in 2017/18

- Clinician-rated scores of social functioning improve by around half between admission to, and discharge from, a mental health service.

- Self-rated recovery scores for people using addiction services showed an average improvement of 24%.

- 82% of consumers and whānau would recommend their service to friends and family if they had a similar need.

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