Dr Bekker spent six years helping a skyrocketing number of at-risk young Aucklanders. Mental health services are doing more with less. We were getting often, month-on-month, more referrals than we ever had before. Yet the amount of clinicians to see those stayed the same, he said.
Resourcing and burn-out issues faced by Dr Bekker and his colleagues were not exclusive to his former workplace, he said, but they were realities for public mental health services across New Zealand.
Dr Bekker left the Auckland DHB earlier in February. He had been in a specialist team helping young people who were self-harming and suicidal.
The heart of the scrap
At the heart of the scrap was a claim by Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson that he was told by an irate Health Ministry Acting Director-General (Mental Health and Addictions) Toni Gutschlag that the Foundation wasnât allowed criticise the Government because the charity received government funding. This was Robinsonâs understanding of what was said and as such guaranteed to be a red rag to a bull even if the bull managed to ensure that its horns were constrained.
Gutschlag counter-claims that her comments were misunderstood. The health sector is riddled with intelligent people frequently talking past each other often due to the stresses they work under so I find it plausible that Gutschlag may believe she never attempted to gag.
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Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson claims he was told by an official that the foundation wasn’t allowed to criticise the Government since it accepted government money. However, the Ministry of Health says the official concerned has a different recollection of the conversation.
The stoush was sparked by a press release from the foundation, a charity that offers mental health education and seeks to hold the Government to account over its policies.
The February 12 press release addressed a wellbeing study the foundation had commissioned, which reported that 25 per cent of New Zealanders over 18 years old had “poor wellbeing”. In the press release, the foundation said the health minister and prime minister needed to show they were taking action on the He Ara Oranga Mental Health Inquiry recommendations, released in late 2018.
KEVIN STENT/Stuff
Mental Health Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson said he was told the foundation wasn’t allowed to criticise the Government since it accepted government money.
The Mental Health Foundation claims the Ministry of Health is trying to “gag” it. Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson claims he was told by an official that the foundation wasn t allowed to criticise the Government since it accepted government money. However, the Ministry of Health says the official concerned has a different recollection of the conversation. The stoush was sparked by a press release from the foundation, a charity that offers mental health education and seeks to hold the Government to account over its policies.