A mental health expert says people with poor mental health are less violent than the average person and our services need to better support them to live well in the community.
The calls come after a number of recent stabbings in the country linked to people suffering from poor mental health, including a patient who was being treated at Christchurch's Hillmorton Hospital who allegedly murdered a woman in a random stabbing while on "community leave".
It follows a briefing in January that staffing issues were so bad at Hillmorton, it was only operating 12 of its 15 beds - something Health Minister Andrew Little was aware of.
Mental Health Foundation CEO Shaun Robinson said we need to look at how we are supporting mental health patients to live well in the community.
He said it's important to recognise that many studies have shown people experiencing mental health issues are less violent than the average person.
"Those kinds of situations are very much the exception, they're not the norm," Robinson said.
He said tragic events tend to fuel stigma, but in fact, people who experience mental distress are more likely to be the victims of violence than be violent themselves.
He said everybody should have access to the right support and living environment
"Inpatient services should be, in most cases, short-term. They should be about a therapeutic opportunity for someone to recover from a time of being very unwell, but we live as people in the community and should be supported to live well in the community," Robinson said.
"If that was going to be something that disrupted my life and became my life forever, that's not actually addressing my needs, in terms of my wellness and my health."
He said problems with housing can cause poor mental health and we are not making enough progress with helping house people.
Back in 2020, the Government announced a funding boost to move 100 mental health inpatients into stable housing to help them transition from inpatient wards in hospitals back into the community.
However, only three people were housed for 18 months.
Robinson said while there are areas in mental health that are making progress, what we need is resources, change and support right along the system.
He said from the start inpatient services were "massively under the hammer", as they were only designed to meet the needs of the most acute three percent of New Zealand - and that three percent as a proportion of the population has gotten a lot bigger.
"The other 97 percent are bashing on the door," Robinson said.
He said about one million people per year need some level of support in New Zealand.
"No government has ever really accepted the scale of that issue."
Watch the full interview above.
