Dr Yoram Barak, of the Dunedin School of Medicine, said when it came to old age psychiatrists there was 1.1 full-time equivalent (FTE) for the department in Dunedin, and virtually no FTEs at all in Invercargill.
According to data provided by the doctor’s union, it was funded for almost 3 FTES.
‘‘To say it’s not ideal is the understatement of the year,’’ he said.
‘‘There has not been an old age psychiatrist in Invercargill for the past ten years.
‘‘Over the last six years or so, a locum doctor, old age psychiatrist from Christchurch would come to Invercargill once every two weeks for two days.
‘‘He has stopped that now. And there is now an advanced trainee old age psychiatrist who is going to go to support Invercargill psychiatric mental health services.’’
Documents provided by the Association for Salaried Medical Specialties (ASMS) showed most departments in the South are understaffed by more than 21%, and for mental health for older people, the problem is even worse, requiring an extra 1.5 FTES.
Dr Barak said the lack of staff was compromising his and others’ work.
‘‘The Southern Division is not being competitive with other divisions on the employment of old age psychiatrists. So people are very unhappy practising here.’’
It was particularly difficult given the Southern districts had some of the fastest-ageing populations, and ‘‘two things’’ needed to be done at the same time.
‘‘We must begin with changing the attitudes and educating the future workforce on old persons’ health and particularly older adult psychiatry or old age psychiatry, [which] needs a significant change in the curriculum of the medical schools.
‘‘At the here and now kind of level, we need the government to instruct the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand [HNZ] to encourage true financial benefits and other benefits for psychiatrists to take on advanced training in old age psychiatry, and to more equally have a distribution of the [meagre] resources that we have around the country.’’
They were ‘‘dangerously understaffed’’ at a time when demand for mental health services for older people was at its highest, he said.
HNZ moving into a districts-need model had not also been a smooth transition, he said.
‘‘... when we, because of the very, very extremely limited resources, wish to — for example — refer a patient to Christchurch, to Burwood Hospital, we are told ‘no, no, no, that's outside of the Southern Division, you can't do that’.
‘‘So if we have an unbearable list of people waiting, for example, on ECT, which is an acute lifesaving procedure, we can't have some of these patients go to Christchurch to receive [it], although we are supposed to be one big happy family.’’
HNZ Southern director of operations Craig Ashton said he acknowledged the poor size of the mental health for older persons department.
‘‘Health New Zealand recognises the need to grow the psychiatry workforce both in Southern District and nationally to make it sustainable both now and into the future.
‘‘Mental health for older person services are part of the wider aged-care continuum of care and we recognise the service in Southern is operating under significant pressure.’’
Mr Ashton said there was significant work under way to increase the mental health and addictions workforce.
‘‘In 2025, 74 clinical psychology interns were funded, exceeding the original target of 60. Additionally, 48 junior doctors entered Stage 1 of their psychiatry training last year, an increase from 33 in 2023.
‘‘The national workforce team are actively working with the sector on initiatives to grow the psychiatry workforce and has funded three additional RMO training positions in Otago.’’
