A reassessment of mental health services from the ground up is needed as providers are struggling to keep up with increasing demand, the New Zealand Association of Counsellors says.

New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) national president Bev Weber said the situation in Nelson-Marlborough reflected what was happening around the country, with mental health patients experiencing a delay in treatment as providers struggled to meet demand.

She said reassessing New Zealand's mental health services could help to alleviate the pressure.

"Nelson Bays Primary Health saw 752 people in the first six months of last year, but are only funded for 712 for the whole year," she said.

"What happens for the rest of the year? How do we help more people with the same amount of funding?

The association represents about 2800 counsellors around the country and often saw people struggling with mild to moderate mental health issues.

Weber said she had worked as a counsellor to deliver "packages of care" through the brief intervention service, which involved between three and five counselling sessions and that gave people the opportunity to talk through how they were feeling.

"Sometimes that can be enough, sometimes that person needs to be referred onto secondary services."

Nelson Bays Primary Health acting general manager of health services Karen Winton said short term intervention had been well researched as being very valid and therapeutic.

"Early intervention is key and that if funding goes to that there will be less pressure on the secondary services in the long run."

Weber said she knew of a medical centre in Auckland that was funding a counsellor for patients to see and she thought it was something that could work in other regions.

"That would be amazing if some of the medical centres could put their hand in their pocket and say, 'OK we will employ a counsellor here, two days a week'. It wouldn't cost the patient anything."

It was a solution that was on the ground, in the community where people were struggling.

According to the World Health Organisation, depression will be the leading cause of the global burden of disease by 2030.

Weber said the NZAC supported Nelson Marlborough Health's decision to allocate additional funding to the existing primary mental health initiative, which refers people to contracted providers for counselling and therapy.

"It's encouraging to see their commitment to continue to invest in more services to promote early intervention."

The additional funding would also be used for the brief intervention service which provides counselling support for those with mild to moderate mental health issues.

Weber said it was a good start, but more needed to be done.

"The situation in the Nelson Marlborough region is just a small piece of the larger picture; implementing proper resources nationwide will save us trouble in the long term."

This article was originally sourced from Stuff.co and written by Samantha Gee.