Francesca Rudkin: Can we stop playing politics with youth mental health?

If you care about the mental health of our young people, if you are a parent of a child who is struggling or advocating to get your child or young adult diagnosed and treated, the last thing you want to hear in the news is more gotcha moments around the I Am Hope charity - and politicians reacting to it.  

As someone who has first-hand experience of how overwhelmed our mental health system is, and how long and hard parents must fight and wait for the life changing and often life-saving treatment our children and adolescents need, there is nothing appealing about politicising the issue.  

This is not the time for grandstanding. This is not the time for the opposition to count hits against the coalition Government; and this is not the time for the Government to sweep their decision-making under the carpet.  

These are children’s lives we are talking about. This is families in distress and disarray. Please, can we do away with the sound bites and headlines and get on with the job?

The Prime Minister was right when he said this week: “Do not play politics with youth mental health”. He said this in response to calls for his Government to review funding for Mike King’s mental health charity I Am Hope, in the wake of an ill-considered and out-of-context comment King made about alcohol being a short-term fix for those going through a rough period with their mental health.  

But when you grant one charity $24 million over 4 years - more than the whole contestable Mental Health Innovation Fund promised by National - then I am sorry Prime Minister, but you have opened this issue up for scrutiny.  

At the beginning of October, the Auditor General raised concerns about the process in which the Ministry of Health allocated the funding, “without an open, transparent, and competitive procurement process”. The ministry took the hit, but the push to do what they did came from the Government. 

So it is on the Ministry and the Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey to assure this investment is achieving the performance measures set in place. That it is helping make a difference to the stretched public service by providing support for young people in distress.  

And if it is not, to do something about it.  

As for Gumboot Friday and I am Hope - forget the commentary and the politicking and get on with what you are so determined to do. Improve the mental health of our young people. 

We all need this to work, and we all will benefit when it does. So I strongly suggest everyone stick to their own lanes and get on with it.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talk SEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you care about the mental health of our young people,
if you're a parent of a childhood was struggling or
advocating to get your child or young adult diagnosed and treated,
the last thing you want to hear in the news
is more gotcha moments around the I Am Hope charity
and politicians reacting to it. As someone who has firsthand
experience with how overwhelmed our mental health system is and

(00:35):
how long and hard parents must fight and wait for
the life changing and often life saving treatment our children
and adolescents need, there is nothing appealing about politicizing the issue.
This is not the time for grandstanding. This is not
the time for the opposition to count hits against the
coalition government, and this is not the time for the
government to sweep their decision making under the carpet. These

(00:56):
are children's lives we're talking about. This is families in
distress and disarray. Please can we do away with the
soundbites and headlines and get on with the job. The
Prime Minister was right when he said this week do
not play politics with youth mental help, he said health.
He said this in response to calls for his government
to review funding for Mike King's mental health charity. I

(01:18):
am hope in the wake of an ill considered and
out of context comment King made about alcohol being a
short term fix for those going through a rough period
with their mental health. But when you grant one charity
twenty four million dollars over four years more than the
whole contestable mental Health Innovation Fund promised by National then
I am sorry, Prime Minister, but you have opened this

(01:41):
issue up for scrutiny. At the beginning of October, the
Order to General raised concerns about the process in which
the Mental Health It's sorry in the process in which
the Ministry of Health allocated to the funding and I
quote without an open, transparent and competitive procurement process. The
Ministry took the hit, but the push to do what
they did came from the government. So it is on

(02:03):
the Ministry and the Mental Health Minister, Matt Doosey to
sure this investment is achieving the performance measures set in place,
that it is helping make a difference to the stretched
public service by providing support for young people, industries, and
if it's not to do something about it. As the

(02:24):
gun boot fight at Friday and I am hope forget
the commentary and the politicking and get on with what
you are so determined to do improve the mental health
of our young people. We all need this to work
and we will all benefit when it does, so, I
strongly suggest everyone stick to their own lanes and just
get on with it.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.