Mental Health Services Boosted for Children and Young People

Health Minister Bill English said today more than a fifth of the new money the Government provided for mental health last year had been spent on child and youth mental health services.

"In the last financial year, just over $3 million was spent on new child and youth mental health services out of a total of $15.2 million for new mental health services following the Mason Report.

"The Government is committed to substantially raising the level of mental health services for children and young people. There is no doubt that there are a multitude of complex influences on the mental health of children and young people, including social, family, school, peer, and genetic influences.

"There is no single answer to improving mental health amongst this vulnerable group, but the Government is commited to putting in more resources. For the 1997/98 year the Government has provided an additional $67 million for mental health services, of which approximately $10.8 million will be spent on services for children and young people.

"I welcome the Ministry of Youth Affairs' plans to publish information aimed at parents and doctors on youth suicide prevention. Suicide is a complex issue and one of the strategies we can use is to make sure that people have information that will help them meet the mental health needs of young people.

"This week the Ministry of Health published a report Mental Health in New Zealand from a Public Health Perspective and this drew attention to the many risk factors that need to be targeted with a general strategy on child and youth mental health.

"These include community-level interventions, family-based interventions, family-based programmes, and childhood and adolescent pyschiatric services.