It deflects questions about how much it wants to engage in root and branch reform with talk of reviews and a health sector summit. There is no doubt some areas, most notably mental health, have the feeling they did in the 1990s, when reform was desperately sought and enacted. For the first time since, mental health is an election issue. A decision to scrap the stand-alone Mental Health Commission, in 2012, arguably contributed to the crisis, as did relaxing strict rules for how DHBs could spend mental health funds. Many casual drop-in services for people with mental health issues closed, while access to referred services tightened.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 18, 2017 04:41 UTC