Community mental health groups are on the precipice of folding due to Government cuts to frontline funding.

“Minister of Mental Health Matt Doocey assured grassroots and medium size community groups there would be funding opportunities via the new Mental Health Innovation Fund announced in the Budget,” Ingrid Leary said

“Not only was that funding halved to $5 million per year, but the Minister has also made the criteria so restrictive that very few organisations will be able to apply.

“Health NZ tender documents show applicants are required to have a minimum of 80 staff and $250,000 co-funding.

“It’s outrageous to suggest community mental health groups have hundreds of thousands of dollars sloshing around in their bank accounts.

“It shows that this Minister is completely out of touch, favouring large organisations that can absorb costs, or he is once again pre-empting the outcome as he did with the Gumboot Friday procurement, and picking winners.

“I am also concerned that social return on investment (SROI) requirements baked into the application process will add unnecessary costs, that many groups simply can’t afford.

“SROIs can be used to back up outcome claims but they should never replace monitoring by government agencies because they are commissioned by the groups who stand to benefit from them.

“Seldom is the underlying data verified by the companies doing the SROI, and in previous procurement the Minister sought no official advice, nor used the value-for-money claims appropriately.

“The requirement to demonstrate scalable digital innovation in the application process shows the Minister either doesn’t value the incredibly important in-person work done by community groups, or he already has prepicked winners for this funding.

“Either way, it shows that despite the grandstanding on mental health, Matt Doocey can’t be trusted,” Ingrid Leary said.

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