Social Bonds not about Recovery
Monday 2nd June, 2015
Yesterday the Government announced the extension of a pilot scheme described as “Social Incentive Bonds” which allows
for the introduction of private funds, and profit driven incentives, in the area of social services. It stated it would
be moving into utilising this unproven and experimental policy to get more people suffering from mental health
difficulties back to work.
Depsite how this policy is being sold, this move is not about providing the best possible care for mental health
sufferers, and will ultimately introduce “perverse incentives” into health care, a move the NZAP opposes.
“My concern is that we have seen in other areas that profit becomes the primary motivation of funders, not optimal care”
says Kyle MacDonald Public Issues spokesperson for the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists. “We’ve seen this
already with incentives introduced to elective surgery, to achieve targets organizations simply remove people from
waiting lists, and in doing so, make the situatuion worse.”
Early indications are the focus of this policy will be on moving more mentally ill back into the work force, which in
some cases can be very beneficial, but we also know from overseas that one of the limitations of Social Bonds schemes is
they are a very blunt instrument in that they are not oriented around health outcomes for individuals, but instead
around acheiving simple goals like decreasing the number of unemployed mental health consumers.
“It is too easy to create situaitions where schemes only take on those that are seen as “easy” to help or bully others
into unsuitable work to achieve targets and therefore profits” says MacDonald. “As an organizatin we are very concerened
about the harm this policy will likely cause for mental health Consumers.”
ends