Minister denies claims that the numbers were removed despite reports
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey has denied reports that the government hid the country's need for nearly 1,500 frontline mental health and addiction workers in its newly released workforce plan.
The plan, called the Mental Health and Addiction Workforce Plan, was released in September 2024, outlining the government's steps to grow its mental health and addiction workforce over the next three years.
But a draft version of the plan obtained by 3News states the country needs 1,485 more frontline mental health and addiction workers today, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The numbers include 470 specialist nurses, 145 psychiatrists, and 145 clinical psychologists.
The figures, which were under the title "What We Need," were omitted in the final version of the plan released.
According to 3News, as reported by the Herald, the change follows an email to the minister's office after feedback from Lester Levy, who was the Health NZ commissioner at the time.
In addition to the section, the email also sought the removal of data on other pages that stated the health system was short.
"In some places we will make some associated narrative changes, to refocus towards highlighting growth against target numbers as opposed to deficit framing," the instruction read as quoted by the Herald.
Despite these reports, Doocey told 3News that he "did not take that out."
"Well, I didn't take that out, so I don't know where that is, but actually a lot of that information is publicly available," Doocey told the news outlet. "I know when I was in opposition, I was using that data as well."
He added that he would be "more than happy for Health NZ to be transparent and to give that information."
Health NZ's Mental Health and Addiction Workforce Plan aims to support the government's plan of training 500 mental health and addiction professionals every year.
"One of the biggest barriers to timely mental health support is workforce shortages," Doocey said during the report's release last year. "It's one of my top priorities as the country's first Minister for Mental Health and it's pleasing to see Health NZ respond with a plan with meaningful increases in a number of key workforce areas."
