‘There is nothing here’ – Wānaka Woman in mental health crisis made to feel like a burden

A Wānaka woman who tried to commit suicide in 2023 says she felt pressured by a nurse going home to free a bed. File photo.
Photo: Provided

Warning: This story discusses damage and suicide.

A Wānaka woman who was trying to get help in a time of mental health crisis says she was forced to feel a burden.

Its story follows the launch of a community report that found that people at Upper Clutha faced huge barriers by having to access mental health support from a system with few resources.

Some described trying to access children’s mental health services as diabolics, while others chose to go out after years struggling to get help.

The Wane Woman – who asked to remain anonymous – tried suicide at the end of 2023.

When she sought help, she said she was alone in a hospital room for long periods without medication and offered no emotional support while oppressed and distressed.

There is no psychiatric service for hospitalization for people in crisis in Queenstown’s lakes.

She was clinically cleaned in a local hospital the next morning, after she tried to get hurt and said she was pressured by a nurse going home to free a bed.

“I told her … ‘I can’t go home. Like, as if I literally tried suicide for the first time and you’ll send me home,’ she said.

She ended up being offered a bed of rest in Dunedin.

“Finally we arrived at Dunedin Hospital after all this shit, making me feel absolute shit, being forced to look like a burden to them.”

The answer made her feel more vulnerable, and she said Wānaka should have better support for people in crisis.

“The experience of still being like an actively suicidal person, being almost forced to go home when they know you have no support … I think it’s just an example of how there is nothing here.”

Health New Zealand said there was a response service to the 24/7 mental health crisis covering Wānaka and people were transferred to hospitalization facilities in Dunedin or Wintergill if necessary.

A crisis rest service, launched last year, was also available in Queenstown to people who have less acute people, said a gateway.

Waiting for nine months for an appointment

The report of the Wānaka Advocacy Group found that there were long waiting times, care could be expensive and scarcity of experts and other employees.

Some respondents mentioned private mental health sessions, costing up to $ 200 by visit, while others talked about waiting more than nine months for consultations.

Health Action Wānaka Gate -Voice of Mental Health Lucy Middendorf.
Photo: Provided

Wānaka health action, a mental health door, Lucy Middendorf, was not surprised by the reports of the report.

His sister fought for years to get support for the severe depression of the public system in Wānaka.

“She had several references from her general practitioner rejected or not locally accepted in Wānaka for many years,” Middendorf said.

When it was finally accepted, sometimes I had to be out of treatment because I couldn’t afford travel costs and used to wait for three or more months for a change in medicine.

“It seems that the system is mainly interested in keeping people alive, but not finding the right type of tools so that they have a significant life,” she said.

Her sister moved to Dunedin because she didn’t get enough support in Wānaka.

Now she was in a much better position, with more access to support and programs.

“If she had more services provided at the beginning of this journey, maybe she was really in a better position today,” Middendorf said.

Wānaka health action has asked the government to commit to introducing psychiatric telesaud consultations.

Current services were struggling to deal with a rapidly growing population, Middendorf said.

“I think psychiatric telesaúde consultations can really save lives. You have situations where patients can receive treatment and medications much faster,” she said.

Begging for help

The report found that there were insufficient mental health services for children and young people, who echoed in the responses of community members.

One resident said his family has been sitting on the reference list for children’s mental health services for 18 months without seeing anyone, describing it as a diabolical.

“We were forced to involve a local private psychologist after literally begged her to accept us, because everyone was not taking new clients. She now left Wānaka, so we have to travel to Queenstown, because no one will accept us,” they said.

Their son was too young to access services available in Cromwell.

“Our general practitioner was amazing and finally, in despair and after six months of high levels of mental health problems, managed to contact a consulting psychiatrist who prescribed antidepressants. It was a nightmare,” they said.

Non-profit ADL works with young people and their Whānau to improve mental health and well-being on the lower southern island.

Executive -CHEFE CLIVE MCARTHUR said that the health gaps in Wānaka were exacerbated by isolation and demand from the region.

“Your restricted resources just mean that support is not always the right time, the right place and you find that services are stretched,” he said.

There were good services in the area, but there was not enough of them and there were not enough employees for demand levels, he said.

“It’s stress and anguish throughout the system. Concerned people, stressed and stretched people, and obviously if there is this need not met, then the problems with which people were presenting can get worse.”

The government highlighted US $ 2.6 billion for mental health financing and dependence surrounded by ring this financial year.

As Minister of Mental Health and Associated Health Minister responsible for rural health, Matt Doocey said that it had established clear expectations to access support.

“What I can compromise is the focus on ensuring that people in the clutha upper area, like other parts of New Zealand, have this level of service guaranteed to involve primary mental health and dependence services within a week and experts in three,” he said.

If the areas were not adequate, he said local authorities needed to put action plans to make it happen and financing could be used to help late areas if necessary.

Telehealth services could be a Gamechanger for rural communities and he would accompany the authorities to find out how they could be launched faster, doocey said.

“Then, hopefully, we move to a point in New Zealand, where, regardless of where you live, you will have a level of service.”

In 2023, the Ministry of Health launched the rural health strategy for the next decade, describing five priorities.

They included ensuring that services were available closer to home to rural communities, supporting rural communities to access services outside their area and ensure that the needs of rural communities were considered in decisions.

Health New Zealand Te Waipounamu Regional Commissioner Greg Hamilton said the organization was committed to improving access to rural health services and ensuring continuous financial sustainability for hospitals and trusting relationships operating in rural communities.

“We recognize that clinical and financial sustainability remains a challenge and we will continue to work in close collaboration with communities and suppliers to face it,” he said.

Several initiatives were underway, including the sustainability project of the Rural Hospital and the urgent non -planned care network of care to deal with concerns about sustainability, following the rural health strategy.

New Zealand’s health had not yet fully considered the Wānaka Health Action report, but planned to work with the group “to achieve the desired results for the local community,” said Hamilton.

“It meets the needs of the growing population of the central Otago region is a continuous consideration for the health of New Zealand in terms of what may be needed now and in the future and how best to provide these services,” said Hamilton.

“We are committed to working with community leaders, Papatipu Rūnanga and experts to project, provide and commission sustainable services that meet current and emerging health needs in the local community.”

Doocey would visit Wānaka as part of a rural health roadshow in July to update the community about rural health strategy and seek feedback on how it was being implemented.

The health action Wānaka says to inform their law, the group conducted research to understand and document the experience of the Superior Clutha community to access health services from a patient and health professional perspective.

About 300 members of the Upper Clutha community were consulted for the survey through two online surveys, focal groups and individual interviews from July to September 2024.

Where to get help:

• Need to speak? Call or free text 1737 at any time to speak to a trained counselor for any reason.

• Life Lele: 0800 543 354 or text aid to 4357.

• Helpline of Suicide Crisis: 0508 828 865/0508 Tautoko. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends.

• Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202.

• Samaritans: 0800 726 666.

• Youthline: 0800 376 633 or text 234 or send an and email to talk@youthline.co.nz.

• What is happening: 0800 Whatsup / 0800 9428 787. This is a free counseling for children from 5 to 19 years.

• Asian family services: 0800 862 342 or text 832. spoken languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and English.

• Rural Support Trust Helpline: 0800 787 254.

• Healthline: 0800 611 116.

• Rainbow Youth: (09) 376 4155.

• Sketch: 0800 688 5463.

If it is an emergency and you feel that you or someone else is at risk, call 111.

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