Attribute to Dr Michael Shepherd, Group Director of Operations, Te Toka Tumai Auckland

More people will gain timelier access to mental health services across Auckland following the decision to close the Rauaroha-Segar House programme.

This is a clinical decision, which follows a careful review of all the feedback received as part of the consultation on the proposed closure. 

It is based on the need to change the way we deliver our specialist mental health services so we can meet the growing psychological needs of our whole population.

The small number of patients receiving care from the programme will have individual transition plans put in place to make sure their future treatment meets their needs and redeployment options will be available for all impacted staff. 

The Rauaroha-Segar House programme, which will end in September, has had unsustainably low referral rates from both Auckland and Waitematā districts and the model of care is not meeting the wider population’s needs.

The decision will support us to provide better, faster care by creating more treatment pathways for a greater number of people, including tangata whai ora in our secondary mental health services.

It will also enable us to provide more integrated services with an expert workforce, closer to home.

The decision was not taken lightly, but it is based on ensuring we meet our clinical responsibilties to our community and do everything we can to provide timelier access to high quality services for tangata whai ora.

We plan to reinvest resource into providing a greater number and range of therapeutic groups within adult community services and increasing the number of individual therapy sessions available for tangata whai ora on the waitlist.

The lack of a Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) programme at Manaaki House has been identified as a particular gap in therapy services by tangata whai ora. This is one of the new treatment services we are committed to making available.

Feedback was received during the change process that supported the re-deployment of staff back into community mental health settings.

We know this decision will be disappointing for some patients, whānau and staff. The programme has made a positive difference to the lives of many tangata whai ora over the years.

The feedback received through this process has been testimony to the high quality of work of our clinical staff and the broader Rauaroha-Segar House community, for which we are very grateful. 

This has been a tough decision to make, but it’s the right thing to do.  We must deliver the best clinical care to as many people as possible, use our expert clinicians and our health dollars to support as many people as possible.

The term of the lease for Rauaroha-Segar House was not a factor in our decision, we continue to be focused on best meeting the needs of as many people as we can with mental health support.