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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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Hon PETE HODGSON
(Minister of Health): I have seen a draft report; I believe that it shows the
commitment of the central region's mental health workforce to improving
services for local people. Heather Roy: Does he
agree with the report's focus that in 2016 "the approach to residential
services will be substantially different. There will be few residential beds
..."; and where does Labour believe those with mental illnesses are
better offsleeping in residential beds or sleeping rough on park
benches? Hon PETE HODGSON: The
move to community-based provision of mental health services has been going on
for some time. Clearly, it is not satisfactory for anyone with a mental
health problem to be sleeping rough. I think that the member should take a
look at the reportin particular, at the bottom of the first page of the
executive summarywhich I think puts in context where mental health
services in this country are going. Maryan Street: Has the
Minister seen any reports on public support for improvements in mental health
and addiction services? Hon PETE HODGSON: I
have seen a report that Heather Roy has come out against the policy of the
deinstitutionalisation of people with mental illness, saying that the policy
was driven by fiscal conservatives. The member need only look at today's
media coverage regarding the horrors of Lake Alice Hospital to know that
deinstitutionalisation not only costs more but improves people's lives. Dr Jonathan Coleman:
Can the Minister confirm that the development plan intends to devolve
psychiatric care of the elderly from hospitals to rest homes; does he have
any idea how unsafe that is, and is not this plan all about cost cutting,
rather than treating older New Zealanders with the respect they deserve? Hon PETE HODGSON: We
have been moving older New Zealanders from hospitals to rest homesor,
more accurately, to dementia units and psychogeriatric unitsfor years.
The member should know that it is not a cost-saving matter to look after
people in the community. The member should also talk to the member of the ACT
party, his colleague who seems to be somehow in favour of residential care
for those with psychiatric illness, whereas the member seems to be against
it. Heather Roy: Does the
Minister share the plan's vision of "an increased uptake and
dissemination of web-based medicine, telepsychiatry, and telephone based
support"; if so, is it now Labour's plan to have the health needs of
Kiwis met by telephone psychics, call centres in India, radiologists in
Lebanon, and the Internet? Hon PETE HODGSON: The
member should catch up. The idea that mental health workers might use phones
to contact their patients is hardly radical. It has been going on all over
the world for a lot longer than two decades. I tell the member that one of
the central region's district health boards, the Wairarapa District Health
Board, already has no hospital beds, though it does purchase about 1? beds in
MidCentral District Health Board, through the gorge. But the member needs to
catch up; that is where the provision of psychiatric services has been moving
for about 20 years. Heather Roy: I seek the
leave of the House to table the Regional Mental Health and Addiction Service
Development Plan for the central region's district health boards. Leave granted. Heather Roy: I raise a
point of order, Madam Speaker. The Minister, in one of his answers, referred
to the executive summary in the same plan that I just sought to table. The
draft I have is dated June 2006 and has no executive summary, so the Minister
was quoting from a separate document. I invite him to table that. Madam SPEAKER: That is
not a point of order. Heather Roy: I raise a
point of order, Madam Speaker Madam SPEAKER: You want
a point of clarification, as I understand it, to the answer. Is that right? Heather Roy: No, I am
seeking to add to the point of order I have just raised. When a Minister
refers to a document or a report, he or she is duty bound to table that
document if so requested by any member of the House. Madam SPEAKER: That is
so at the time and if the Minister is reading from it. Could the Minister
assist the member on this. Hon PETE HODGSON: I am
very happy to. I did not quote from the report. I will happily table it. I
seek leave accordingly. Leave granted. |
