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Thursday 20 July 2017

Royal Commission of Inquiry

The latest outcry on the state of Mental Health in New Zealand is very disturbing. There are three organisations in the fray:

  1. Ministry of Health through DHB's
  2. Mental Health NGO's (essentially MoH funded)
  3. And organisations that work with no Public Funding (funded through public charities)

There is a major spat going on between 1 and 2, with 3 shaking the nest (Or cage rattling) The spat became very evident this week with The Key To Life's Charitable Trust being undermined by the first two. This had been foreseeable with reports that Mike King had been receiving from a small amount of schools being instructed by 1 & 2 not to allow his team into some schools.

But that's common knowledge. In the past few days Mike and his team were endorsed by former Chief Coroner Neill MacLean, no doubt after hearing about the interference from DHB staff in South Canterbury (Professor Annette Beautrais). I sense she (and the other ones at Taihape) are running scared “Chicken Licken the Sky is Falling”. Having been associated with academics, especially University qualified, there is a sense of Us and The Rest (plebes) In essence they fear being undermined and they think that way.

The best results for anyone is to place the experienced in the right position and work for the greater good. Mike King and KTL are experienced but not book trained, and therein lies the conundrum. Professor Beautrais doesn't see Mike's work, instead she calls upon years of proving the system she works under is flawed. It's very much like she is trying to justify her job instead of using all her skills to foster a way forward for all. And she is not the only one. DHB's are littered with archaic thinkers and no doers.

I for one feel a Royal Commission of Inquiry into ALL Mental Health services is urgently needed  so we can all work together and essentially to save lives. Remember Pike River (29) and Cave Creek (13) had a Royal Commission of Inquiry. So with suicides 500+ annually an inquiry should be high on the Governments priority list to address with all parties




2 comments:

  1. Give me actual personal experienced people any day over book learned. These little kids just out of Uni with the beautifully clean degree, don't know diddly squat, because they have no life experience. The only people who know best are the people who have been there, done that. Then in association with people who know all about treatments and medications that work, they might get somewhere at providing a reasonable mental health care package.
    Politicians know nothing about mental health unless they, themselves have been nuts sometime in their lives and only if they can get expert advice from their expensive advisors, are they in any position to tell nutters, sorry we can't help you, we don't have any money left for you, it has all been spent on the fripperies of no account.
    Give the job to nutters who know all the answers at a minimum cost to the taxpayer. NO need for expensive boards of inquiry at all. They are just delaying tactics.

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  2. Actually I have no major issues with recent nurses/Psyches as theyt do get 3 week placements on the frontline. It's the older ingrained ones unable to change is the issues.

    Nice reply, thank you.

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