.jpg){kind=logo}
Welcome to the first edition in a regular monthly publication of Healthcare Review – OnlineTM. Current users will be familiar with Healthcare Review – OnlineTM as an occasional series, aiming to keep readers informed regarding significant developments in health care delivery.
During this important time of change in health care in New Zealand, we have chosen to begin our regular editions over the next two months by looking closely at two specific areas of considerable importance in the health care arena, mental health and Maori health.
In this edition we have had the opportunity to bring together the opinions of three key figures in mental health in New Zealand.
David King is a visiting Fellow at the Centre for Health Service Research and Policy in the Department of Community Health, University of Auckland. David brings to Healthcare Review – OnlineTM his experience of a number of mental health services internationally, drawing on that experience to summarise what he sees as critical success factors for good practice in community mental health services.
David places great emphasis on the role of the ‘key worker system’ in community mental health. Key workers, assigned to each consumer, are seen as an essential to ensure that client needs are assessed adequately and services are provided to match. The key worker system allows consumers of mental health services to have access to the whole ‘menu’ of health and social support services available, giving them the ability to ‘shop around’ for the services which suit that consumer best.
As General Manager, Mental Health Services and RADS at Waitemata Health, Derek Wright offers an important perspective, that of the CHE, both as secondary care provider in mental health services and working alongside community mental health services. Derek describes an approach to integrated care where the focus is on integrated and co-ordinated services offered under the umbrella of one organisation of multiple service providers.
In addition, Derek’s recent role with the Mental Health Commission in preparing the blueprint for mental health has allowed Derek to provide Healthcare Review – Online with an overview of this approach to mental health purchasing and a definition of the role of the Mental Health Commission.
Bette Kill from North Health offers an stimulating overview of the challenges to both purchasers and providers in mental health. Recently appointed to National Co-ordinator, Mental Health Services for the Transitional Health Authority, Bette offers an important perspective on the role of the Transitional Health Authority alongside the Mental Health Commission and the Ministry of Health, and the approach of these agencies through a mental health protocol to work collaboratively toward shared strategies in mental health.
Next month’s edition of Healthcare Review – Online will focus on Maori health. We are very pleased to have the opportunity to draw together the viewpoints of a number of parties in an attempt to highlight issues in Maori health. Contributors will include those involved in purchasing health services for Maori, Maori providers, researchers and those influencing the policy which affects Maori health.
