Critics say a $10m boost for mental health services is inaccessible and won't go far, when the industry is drastically understaffed and stretched by demand. Photo: RNZ/Michelle Tiang
A rainbow mental health organisation says community providers are being shut out of the government's $10 million mental health fund by unaffordable requirements.
OutLine Aotearoa chief executive Emmaline Pickering-Martin said the government's new mental health fund is unattainable for many small providers, NGO's and charities working in the mental health sector.
The fund's July opening date was announced earlier the same month with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying people in need of mental support were waiting too long for appointments to be seen.
The fund has a requirement for organisations to match-fund the pay out at a minimum level of $250,000.
But Pickering-Martin said that is impossible to meet for providers and community organisations, including OutLine.
"In the headlines of the fund itself, it says this is targeted for community organisations, for NGO's, for charities, for the mental health sector. But none of us have the capacity to apply because of the really really stringent criteria," Pickering-Martin said.
"It's unfathomable to me that they're so out of touch with the sector."
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The fund also requires an external audit of the proposed project to prove positive social return on investment.
Pickering-Martin said there are few experts who can undertake that kind of audit in New Zealand, and they come at a price that is unaffordable for many in the mental health sector.
The government needs to revisit the criteria for the fund, she said.
"Everybody wants the minister to relook at the criteria, change it up to make it more accessible, more equitable, more attainable for our sector, because at the moment, it's for the big dogs."
The fund was announced after the government gave $24 million to Mike King's Gumboot Friday for youth counselling services earlier this year.
"There is good work being done there, but to give one organisation that much money and then tell everyone we have to fight for this tiny pot, and then make the criteria so unattainable that it's an even more exclusive few that could attain that money - it's giving us the vibe that they've already made decisions around who would be able to get this money."
In a statement, Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey said the fund is just one initiative in a wider plan to support the mental health workforce.
Requests for proposals for the fund close on 29 August.
"It is important this process is fair and transparent, and all potential applicants have access to the same information," Doocey said.