Design process for new mental health unit under way soon

Nicole Mathewson Reporter from The Press

From local democracy reporter Brendon McMahon:

Work is progressing for a new mental health unit in Greymouth.

Canterbury and West Coast District Health Boards infrastructure executive director Rob Ojala, told the West Coast board on Friday that the planning had reached the point where "we're on the market to get the design team."

He shared that following a query from iwi representative Francois Tumahai whether the planning would include a consumer representative.

Ojala said user group representatives would be part of the design structure for the new unit, "so we get a broad lens on the reality for the model going forward".

However, a user representative was probably not going to be in the governance structure for it, although iwi would be represented.

DHB general manager Philip Wheble noted the auditors from the Office of the Ombudsman had requested an update on 16 recommendations.

There was a continued focus on recruitment across the mental health service.

Key positions appointed in the past few weeks included the clinical nurse manager for the inpatient unit, a UK registered nurse as a case manager for Northern Community Mental Health (Buller), and a clinical psychologist who was not due to start until January.

"This is a key role to fill having been empty since 2016," Wheble said.

Occupational therapy vacancies continued to cause challenges for service delivery and specialist input in the mental health area.

He also reported a focus on equity for Māori patients, with a Māori casual mental health assistant employed, while the manager hours for the Māori mental health team had also been increased from half to full-time.

Services had not been significantly impacted by Covid apart from the Alcohol and Other Drugs service (AOD), which had a higher proportion of positive cases with increased service delivery challenges, "all of which have been managed well".

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