CDHB chief executive David Meates wrote to the Ministry of Health in March to request $7.2 million of "urgent" additional funding for increasing mental health demand.

The Government has rejected an "urgent" request for millions of dollars of additional mental health funding for Canterbury.

A Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) member has labelled the rejection "brutal, cruel, unfair and wrong" and warns mental health staff are under such pressure that "we're heading towards a service failure".

CDHB chief executive David Meates told the Ministry of Health in March about a proposal to request "urgent additional mental health funding of $7.2 million to address increasing demand", documents obtained by Stuff reveal.

MAARTEN HOLL/STUFF Director General of Health Chai Chuah called the CDHB's plea for extra mental health funding "inappropriate".

Director general of health Chai Chuah responded in a letter to CDHB acting chair Mark Solomon that such a proposal for additional funding was "inappropriate" as it was the responsibility of the board to ensure the provision of services for its resident population.

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As of April this financial year, the CDHB was running on a forecast year end deficit of almost $50m.

IAIN MCGREGOR CDHB member Jo Kane called Chuah's response "brutal, cruel, unfair and wrong".

It wanted the $7.2 million to develop a community-based acute service to fill the gap between crisis resolution and hospital admission. It would also expand its community mental health teams to provide ongoing care for at-risk people – such as those with relationship issues, addictions or parenting problems.





CDHB board member Jo Kane said she was deeply worried about the state of Canterbury's mental health services.

"They're doing an outstanding job under extreme pressure, but if we continue this way, we're heading towards a service failure.

"People aren't able to access the services and aren't able to get help. This will result in harm to themselves and harm to the community."

Chuah calling the urgent plea for help "inappropriate" was "seriously offensive to the people of Canterbury", she said.

She believed his response was the latest in a long line of "brutal, cruel, unfair and wrong" dealings with the CDHB.

"We haven't got any discretionary funding. We are already running on a deficit."

The necessary funds would have to be taken out of other services, she said.

Board member Andy Dickerson said the ministry's response was "disappointing" and placed the board "under great pressure".

"The 'business as usual' approach of the ministry is completely flawed and grossly underestimates the seriousness of the natural disaster we have been through – and are still recovering from."

Mental health advocacy and peer support (MHAPS) manager Sue Ricketts said several non governmental organisations (NGOs) providing mental health support reached breaking point in March.

"We couldn't take any more people to help. We closed the wait list and we were turning people away to other services that also couldn't help.

"People were going around in circles."

The CDHB granted MHAPS extra funding to employ an additional full time staff member, Ricketts said.

The addition brought MHAPS' staff to 14 full time equivalents, but it still had a wait list of about two weeks.

Last month was the organisation's "busiest month ever" with 50 new people seeking help.

"We are seeing an increase in both numbers of people and complexity of issues they're bringing.

"If we see more people, fewer of them will get to crisis and need more expensive services."

CDHB Acting chief executive Mary Gordon said Canterbury was experiencing "ongoing and significant increases" in mental health presentations, Gordon said.

Ministry of Health director of critical projects Michael Hundleby said no funding was allocated for ad hoc requests.

Cabinet, on occasion, approved additional funding to help DHBs "cope with expenditure not anticipated in the annual planning process", such as the response to the November earthquakes.



This financial year, the CDHB was allowed to have a deficit of $38.5m, Hundleby said.

The Government provided $106m of additional support to the CDHB since the earthquakes, including an extra $20m for its mental health services last year.





