The Commission’s Monitoring
The Mental Health Commission reports on progress towards implementing the national mental health strategy.
Background
The Mental Health Commission reports on progress towards implementing the national mental health strategy.
The strategy is set out in Looking Forward (Ministry of Health, 1994), Moving Forward (Ministry of Health, 1997), and Te Tahuhu - Improving Mental Health 2005-2015: The Second Mental Health and Addiction Plan (Minister of Health, 2005). Te Kokiri: The Mental Health and Addiction Action Plan 2006-2015 (Minister of Health, 2006) focuses on implementing Te Tahuhu. Where Te Tahuhu provides the vision for the future, Te Hononga 2015: Connecting for Greater Well-being (Mental Health Commission, 2007) provides a picture.
In the past the Commission’s monitoring has been closely tied to the concepts outlined in the Commission’s Blueprint for Mental Health Services in New Zealand (1998). The Blueprint set out an implementation path for how the strategy, as it existed in 1998, was to be achieved.
To fulfil its monitoring functions in the future, the Commission is moving towards an outcomes-focused monitoring framework that will monitor the implementation of the strategy at a system level. The Commission’s monitoring programme will be developed to complement, rather than duplicate, the monitoring activities of other agencies, including the Ministry of Health. The Commission plans to develop this monitoring framework during the 2007/08 year.
Current monitoring of the DHBs by the Commission is based on information provided by the DHBs and the Ministry of Health. This is supplemented by formal visits to each DHB at least once every two years.
How do we monitor?
The Commission currently uses a range of processes to gather information and monitor the mental health sector. Some of the processes include:
visiting each DHB formally at least once every two years
monitoring the mental health workforce using information provided by DHBs about the numbers of filled and unfilled positions
analysing mental health financial planning and expenditure information provided by the Ministry of Health
monitoring the number of people using mental health services
meeting with DHB and NGO service providers
meeting with consumer and family groups
receiving unsolicited correspondence from a wide range of stakeholders.