Saturday, 6 June 2015, 11:21 am

Press Release: New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists

The New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists have teamed up with grassroots campaigning movement ActionStation to call on the Government to drop new experiments using ‘social bonds’ to fund the delivery of mental health services.

“Over the past week a number of our members asked us to launch a campaign calling for an end to this experimentation with mental health funding,” says Marianne Elliott, National Director of ActionStation. “They were concerned about the perverse incentives this approach could create in the delivery of essential services to vulnerable New Zealanders.”

The petition asks the Health Minister Jonathan Coleman to stop the use of ‘social bonds’ in the mental health sector and calls on him to commit to more government funding to mental health treatment and support directly.

The New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists share these concerns and have publicly backed the petition.

“As we talked to our members, and I spoke with members of the general public it became clear that a lot of people are really shocked and worried about the idea of this Government using an unproven funding model with some of our most vulnerable Mental Health consumers” says Kyle MacDonald, New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists Chair of Public Issues.

“We hope that people who share our concerns take the time to sign the petition and spread the word.” Says MacDonald “This just felt too important for us as a profession, and we felt we had to stand up and say stop. Our hope is that other professions feel the same way and join us in endorsing this action”

Petition: http://www.actionstation.org.nz/mentalhealth

Contact: NZPA Kyle MacDonald 021 708 689

Contact: Action Station Marianne Elliott 021 110 6086

More details:

ActionStation is a member-led campaigning group whose mission is to help more New Zealanders get involved in campaigns and actions to promote participatory democracy, and transparent and accountable politics in New Zealand. Launched in July 2014, ActionStation currently has over 80,000 active members.

The New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists is a professional organisation which sets, examines and maintains specific standards for the safe and ethical practice of psychotherapy in Aotearoa New Zealand.

ENDS

- Scoop NZ