If there were such limits then they needed to be removed "and fast", he said.
In his capacity as chairman of the boards' joint community and public health advisory committee, he queried a comment in a report by senior mental health project manager Dan Mustapic summarising the gaps analysis which had been done of mental health services for Queenstown Lakes-Central Otago.
Mr Mustapic said Queenstown Lakes was part of the Southland board, while Central Otago came under the Otago board.
Separate funding meant there were limited opportunities for shared services and applying innovative solutions to some of the challenges facing the region.
Mr Millar said if the geographical boundary was being seen as an impediment, he was "anxious to say `get rid of that"'.
Regional planning and funding general manager David Chrisp told the meeting the board was not in a position to provide new funding for some of the services identified as being needed and it would be a matter of "re-prioritising" some existing mental health spending.
Work had started on that and progress was being made, although he acknowledged it was difficult.
A report would be made to the committee next month.
Priorities identified in Mr Mustapic's report included residential services (including crisis and planned respite care), alcohol and drug services for both Queenstown and Central Otago, children and youth, service to Maori in the Queenstown Lakes area, day activity programmes for Queenstown and outlying areas and an increase in the provision of specialist adult psychiatric services for both areas.
Mr Millar, noting that the priorities were not listed in order, asked if the committee would have any involvement in setting them, as there had not been any discussion on this.
Mr Chrisp said the team would be interested in the committee's views and that Mr Mustapic had listed the main issues which had come up in discussions with providers and focus groups.
More detail could be provided to the committee for discussion next month.
In his summary of the gaps analysis, Mr Mustapic also said inequity in service existed.
As the population increased so, too, would the inequity.
This inequity limited the opportunity to share services as intended by the Southern Alliance (the agreement under which the two boards collaborate), Mr Mustapic's report said.
Committee member Fiona McArthur said it was not clear to what sort of inequity the report referred and she sought more information.