Jacinda Ardern
Leader of the Opposition
MP for Mt Albert
16 August 2017
Canterbury kids get more support for mental health
Children in Canterbury and Kaikoura will get dedicated mental health support to help them overcome the trauma of the
earthquakes, says the Leader of the Opposition Jacinda Ardern.
“We’ll fund an extra eighty mental health professionals for the next three years who will work in all public primary and
intermediate schools. This will mean that there will be a full-time mental health professional for every 500 school
children in Canterbury.
“I know that the kids of Canterbury still bear the mental scars of the earthquakes and that the Government sadly hasn’t
done what’s needed. Since 2011 there’s been a 73 per cent increase in children and young people going to mental health
clinics.
“There’s a need for action as we know that waiting times for children under 12 for mental health services in
Christchurch have been deteriorating.
“At the moment there are just seven full-time Canterbury District Health Board staff in their school mental health team
covering over 136 schools in the region.
“We’ll invest an extra $10 million in a range of mental health professionals including psychologists and
psychotherapists as well as social workers, registered nurses and community mental health workers.
“These new teams will complement Labour’s plan to roll out school based health services in all public secondary schools and create eight primary mental health care teams in GP practises including Canterbury.
“We can afford this by boosting health funding by $8 billion and restore the $2.3 billion that this Government has failed to provide for demographic pressures and inflation.
“It’s time we did a lot more to help the young people of Christchurch and Kaikoura through the terrible legacy of the
earthquakes. We’ll make sure in these critical early years, they get all the help they need to allow them to grow up as
happy, healthy Kiwis,” says Jacinda Ardern.
ends