Social impact bonds not the answer to anything

Last year the New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s Mental Health Nurses Section raised the concern that social impact bonds were a “solution looking for a problem”.
Chair of the Section, Gina Soanes says, “Today’s announcement that this government's first social bond has collapsed, with negotiations breaking down and the provider walking away comes as no surprise to us.”

“Privatising mental health services and reducing people to “targets” and “outcomes” is not the way to create a nation where people with mental illness are supported to recover. We agree that people with mental health issues should be supported to find employment. The support they need should be funded properly by the Government.”

“As we expected, no private for-profit company is going to be interesting in providing holistic wrap-around services – there’s no profit in supporting individuals and whānau in a sustainable way that achieves desirable outcomes for them.”

“The Mental Health Nurses Section believes services for those experiencing mental illness are best provided by the public health system and social sector services, and that effective prevention programmes over many sectors is the way to save health dollars in the long term.”

“We’re hopeful this will be the last we hear of social impact bonds.”

ENDS

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