Mental health problems are a figment of our imagination and the work of anti government protesters

Written By: - Date published: 11:33 am, May 10th, 2017 - 17 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, democratic participation, health, national, petition, Politics, quality of life, same old national, the praiseworthy and the pitiful - Tags:

It seems that deep in its third terms National has run out of fresh ideas and its only response to people raising issues of concern is to abuse.

Climate change?  Radical lefty tripe.

Dirty rivers?  Extremist nonsense put up by a group of degenerates who want to stop farmers earning what they deserve, that is more.

Child poverty?  All their fault.  Those two year olds should have worked harder and planned for their future.

And those with mental health issues?  Clearly the Government thinks they just need to toughen up and stop caring about each other and worrying how bad things are getting.  Depression is a sign of weakness, not a human condition many of us go through often brought on by the failure of society to provide adequately for us all.

And if you raise these issues and express concern then you are nothing more than a bunch of anti government rent a crowd protesters.

This is exactly how Jonathan Coleman, current Minister of Health, described a group including such luminaries as Max Abbott.

From Newstalk ZB:

An open letter calling for Government action on mental health has been presented to Parliament.

A small number of representatives from lobby group Action Station – the group behind the “People’s Mental Health Report” released last month – gathered for the occasion.

12,800 people have signed the open letter, which has been presented to Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne.

However, Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman has accused Action Station of being politically aligned and motivated. He described them as “anti-Government protesters”.

“When you look at the people behind it, they’re very left-wing, anti-Government protesters,” Dr Coleman said.

The letter was signed by a number of well-known New Zealanders, including Taika Waititi, Louis Nicholas and Rhys Darby, and calls on the Government to implement the four recommendations in the “People’s Mental Health Report”.

They include; an urgent increase in mental health funding, better independent oversight of the mental health system, an urgent inquiry into mental health services, and a national education programme to help people better understand mental health issues.

Fairfax Media chose to join in the ridiculing of what is an important issue by stating that a small number of representatives presented the petition.  Don’t they understand how it works now?  Mass online movements rely on representatives to do the presentation part.  And 12,800 responders is not a small deal.

The report itself was crowdfunded and crowdsourced story-based inquiry into the public mental health system in Aotearoa New Zealand.  It is bizarre that such an important investigation had to be crowd funded.

The background to the report is described in this way by the website:

Although everyone would hope to live in good mental health, the reality for one in six New Zealand adults is very different – and for them and their families, the expectation that they should be able to get help when they need it is vital.

Unfortunately, there are signs that the public mental health system designed to offer this help is in crisis.

Those most in need are experiencing long waiting times for support; the lack of resources is leading to an increased reliance on the use of isolation as a form of care; and the country is experiencing alarmingly high levels of suicide.

The Ministry of Health has rejected repeated calls for a Government review of the public mental health system, so we decided to run our own.

I am convinced that politics in New Zealand is finally reaching a turning point.  More and more people are realising that this Government is morally bankrupt, tired and bereft of ideas.

And there is a turning point when enough Kiwis get to realise that National’s rule is that selfish, uncompromising and brutal  there needs to be a change in government.  I believe we are at that stage now.

17 comments on “Mental health problems are a figment of our imagination and the work of anti government protesters ”

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  1. The decrypter 1
    10 May 2017 at 11:42 am

    David Clark is giving Coleman a bit of a mental stir up in the house.Coleman is getting rattled.

  2. Stuff The Politicians 2
    10 May 2017 at 1:21 pm

    Did National ever have fresh ideas ?

    From what I see, they have always used others to come up with the answers and then claim them as their own.
    They do not like getting headaches by thinking.

    National Politicians are a bloody dumb bunch of empty heads.

  3. Draco T Bastard 3
    10 May 2017 at 2:09 pm

    It is bizarre that such an important investigation had to be crowd funded.

    No, it was inevitable under the neo-liberal system that we operate under where ‘user pays’ is the operative ideology.

    More and more people are realising that this Government is morally bankrupt

    As long as we’re capitalist that will be true of all governments as capitalism itself is morally bankrupt.

  4. Red 4
    10 May 2017 at 4:00 pm

    “I am convinced that politics in New Zealand is finally reaching a turning point. More and more people are realising that this Government is morally bankrupt, tired and bereft of ideals” Been personally convinced does not mean it is so, especially with in built bias no matter what I think you maybe disappointed at election time

  5. One Anonymous Bloke 5
    10 May 2017 at 4:17 pm

    Coleman: if there were a need for a report the market would have produced one by now!

    *market produces report*

    Coleman: stupid communists!

    Urgently increase funding to mental health services.
    Conduct a national review of mental health services.
    Provide a wider range of treatment options including a full range of talking therapies, and peer support – both of which people had found to be useful and therapeutic.
    Treat people using mental health services with respect, acknowledging their experience and expertise in their own mental health, and their capacity to make good choices about their treatment.
    Involve families more in the care and support of people experiencing mental distress, and help families to give the kind of support that is needed.

    Not sure any of these recommendations are obviously tainted by political bias.

    Coleman: this shallow pool is mine! Mine I tell you! Get out of my pool! Get out!

  6. Tamati Tautuhi 6
    10 May 2017 at 7:46 pm

    Mental Health is quite a complex area, as the physicans do not actually know what is going on inside your mind, some mental health problems are caused by a chemical imbalance in the body which upsets the way the brain functions.

    Especially with bad diets the brain and the body is not getting the right nutrients to balance the mind and the body. It concerns me that modern medical thinking is based around prescribing synthetic drugs like prozac, ritalin, venlafaxine without really understanding what is happening to the whole person ?

  7. rhinocrates 7
    10 May 2017 at 8:10 pm

    All we need now is Wayne to tell us that he’s feeling perfectly fine and therefore there’s no problem, just like how he has a very nice house and clean water.

    Nats seem completely incapable of imagining how it might be to be someone else. That is, they have no empathy.

  8. Muttonbird 8
    10 May 2017 at 8:55 pm

    How distressing must it be for the family of Chelsea Brunton to have to listen to Mr Coleman’s dismissal of the People’s mental health report this week when their daughter and mother took her own life while Mr Coleman was fomenting left wing conspiracies in the house, in similar circumstances to Nikki Stevens two years ago.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11853218

  9. Michael who failed Civics 9
    10 May 2017 at 11:19 pm

    Maestro Coleman’s villification of the PMHR authors is deliberate: he knows perfectly well that most voters believe anyone who opposes neoliberalism is a lefty traitor. I wonder whether this explains Labour’s reluctance to oppose neoliberalism too vigorously – just enough for the cameras but not enough to unsettle the market?

  10. Keith 10
    11 May 2017 at 7:02 am

    Mental health services, like nearly all government depts are suffering from a lack of money. This is real, very real. With lack of funding comes Nationals” do more with less”, less also meaning less workers, meaning higher workloads, meaning lowering quality from a sense that you cannot cope doing the job because quite simply, you cannot.

    Into this sizeable void, enter corrections and police officers, few if any who are trained to deal with people labouring under mental health problems. They are the unwilling janitors for Nationals, who gives a shit attitude. What kind of useless system does this?

    Apparently NZ is running a surplus but we not, money is simply syphoned off to prop up the governments books, to prop up National, that should be going to vital public services.

    Innocents get hurt and die because of Nationals policies. When is tge rest of NZ going to wake up ans see this. And when are the opposition going to do likewise and articulte this point?

  11. Whispering Kate 11
    11 May 2017 at 10:41 am

    Mental unwellness is not just an affliction of the poor, serious mental illnesses will be present in all walks of life. What makes the difference is that wealthy people who have sons, mothers, daughters, husbands with bipolar/schizophrenia etc just shuttle their unwell family into expensive clinics, shut away from society and they get very good treatment and medication to help them to live a good life out in society, managing jobs etc – top life long care being looked after.

    The wealthy do not have to run the gauntlet of a very downtrodden mental health service with excellent staff doing their utmost to care for the mentally unwell. It’s a simply disgusting state of affairs by an uncaring government – its bad enough that people with depression who must multiply by the hundreds in this country aren’t getting the help they need, but its simply not acceptable that people with serious mental health issues are being seriously neglected and that the police/corrections have to be professional health workers to see to their needs. A broken back would get immediate specialist care and rightly so – a broken mind is just an aberration in the minds of our politicians.