Innovative community mental health services to get funding boost

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Mental Health advocates hope a new innovation fund will encourage a step change in the delivery of community mental health services, enabled by data and digital.

The first round of the government’s $20 million Mental Health Innovation Fund will open later this month and use of technology is one of the key components highlighted for successful applicants.

The fund document says technology allows for more responsive services than the traditional mental health service model.

“Technology can provide more choice and faster engagement between the individual and mental health practitioner at a time and place more suitable for both. Younger people are often more comfortable using technology-based solutions,” it says.

Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson says technology already contributes to the provision of mental health services via online and telehealth solutions and will have a big role in the future.

However, it is not a silver bullet that can replace human interactions.

“We need to be careful not to see it as the solution, but as a tool to enhance the things that we already have and to help us develop new ways of doing things,” Robinson explains.

“The heart of mental health has always got to be empathy, connection and human beings and technology should only ever be a tool to allow that connection and that empathy and that sense of belonging and support to occur.”

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Anna Elders, clinical lead for online cognitive behavioural therapy provider Just a Thought, says the key to sector transformation and better outcomes will be a shift towards authentic person/whānau-centred care.

“eMental health tools will be central to this, but only when they are authentically co-designed with lived experience communities and iteratively improved through meaningful ongoing evaluation,” she says.

Elders believes the Government understands the opportunity provided by digital mental health tools.

“Minister Doocey has voiced his intention to explore the benefits and opportunities for digitally enabling our sector, and there has also been growing insight and motivation for this by the government over the last few years,” she explains.

“We need to leverage the multiple ways we can use technology to learn more, test new solutions and service models and innovate faster, including achieving a growth in workforce capacity.

“Digital will be a critical enabler that will expedite our progress if we can bring it more into centre stage at this crucial point in our journey.”

Angela Lim, chief executive of digital mental health company Clearhead, says the new fund is a step towards allowing more innovation in the community.

She says New Zealand does not have the workforce needed to safely deliver mental health services, and eMental health tools can play a role in helping individuals either self-manage or navigate the mental health system to get help easier and earlier.

“We want to view the use of technology less on being more productive on the status quo, and instead to open up new ways of working in order to get a step change improvement,” she tells eHealthNews.

“These tools have the potential to make a more meaningful impact on increasing access by managing demand more effectively when the right people are getting the right care at the right time.”

The innovation fund will deliver up to $20 million over four years in matched funding distributed to community mental health organisations. The government says community organisations can offer better services at lower cost.

“The NGO sector can achieve this by embracing technology, developing innovative operating models, or simply by understanding their communities better than health bureaucrats in Wellington,” the fund document says.

To apply for co-investment funding NGOs will need to demonstrate they can; increase access to mental health and addiction support; protect public specialist mental health services by reducing demand; develop capacity in the mental health workforce; use technology to drive productivity; deliver scalable solutions for unmet need; and evidence positive social return on investment.

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