Borrowing Tauranga's mental health model

The Government is looking at taking up a Tauranga mental health model that treats people in their homes instead of institutions.

LINC Support Services has been operating in its present form since March 27. ‘Living Independently, Navigating Communities' is a non-profit organisation treating the mentally ill at home instead of in institutions.


Matt Doocey, BOIP MP Todd Muller and LINC manager Heather Shepherd.

It's the numbers that brought Waimakariri MP Matt Doocey to LINC this week.

The new model has resulted in a 69 per cent increase in the number of people supported, without additional funding.

It also led to an increase in the number of Maori being supported, from 20 per cent to 33 per cent.

And higher numbers of people are being treated and discharged, compared with the institutional model.

It's an almost irresistible combo for a government facing a wave of post Christchurch earthquake mental health issues.

'Why I'm interested is that we know post-earthquake there's a growing need for further support services especially around mental health,” says Matt, who is also deputy chair of the government's social services committee.

Forecasting models produced by Canterbury District Health Board show that the children of the earthquakes are more likely to be presenting with mental health issues as they grow older.

Children three or four-years-old during the earthquakes could be encountering earthquake related issues as they enter their early teens, and the government is looking for ways to provide the mental health services to support them through that.

'I was very interested in being here today. I know that LINC stats of increasing support by 69 per cent without any increased funding is something I wanted to learn more about,” says Matt, who has history in healthcare management including in the delivery of community health, mental health, and social care services.

He studied counselling psychology at WelTec (Wellington). He has a Bsc (Hons) in Social Policy, an MA in Healthcare Management from Kingston University in London, and an MSc in Global Politics from Birkbeck College, University of London.

'We are going to be looking at mental health services within social services and understanding about the models of care and what we can learn. What we know about mental health now is what we knew about physical health 50 years ago.

'It shows how much we still have to learn about mental health.”

For Canterbury it means keeping an eye on population groups, making sure they are engaged, because they know that population groups can fall between the cracks and drop out of service provisions, says Matt.

Mental health services are currently getting custom 10-15 per cent above the pre earthquake baseline. Because they are expecting an increase in numbers, it will help to understand what kind of issues the new customers will be presenting with, so the right services are in place.

'So what they are saying is for those three or four year olds now what issues will they be presenting with at the start of adolescence; increased anxiety, increased depression, and how will that be playing out.”

LINC abandoned the traditional housing and recovery mental health contracts in favour of a community outreach programme in 2013.

Health care workers visit patients in their homes instead of patients being required to attend or live in at institutions.

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